


Imprisonment

by AngelofMuses



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Our connnection, Slight shipping between the Yu's and respective Bracelet Girls, prison fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7258780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofMuses/pseuds/AngelofMuses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Well, it can't get much worse." Yuya tried to throw a grin a Yugo, but the two boys were hurt, in chains, and followed by a very obnoxious egotist. Yuri grinned, as the white hallway reached its end. ON HIATUS</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bruised and Beaten

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Our Connection](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4959073) by [Risaru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Risaru/pseuds/Risaru). 



> This is my first multichapter fic in a very long time. I will attempt to finish it, and five chapters are already written. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment of your thoughts. This was inspired by Our Connection, which is a great fic that I would recommend.

“Well, it can’t get much worse.” Yuya tried to throw a grin at Yugo, but it was half-hearted. Yuri wore an expression of triumphant narcissism on his face. He walked alongside the newly caught prisoners, but his hands weren’t bound by tight handcuffs. Three Obelisk force members led the group down slick white hallways. There were heavy steel doors with a high window the boys couldn’t see through. Yugo intentionally was walking slow, trying to defy his captors in any way he could. He was far from being able to escape, but he wasn’t going to completely give in. One of the Obelisks in the front clicked a button attached to his duel disk band. All of a sudden, an electric shock was sent straight through Yuya’s and Yugo’s wrists.

                “OW! What did I do?” Yuya slightly tried move his wrists to help the pain, but they were stuck tight inside of the cuffs.

                “If one of you acts up, the group gets punished. I assure you, every other prisoner in here got that same shock. You’ll be very popular if you keep that up.” Yuri said with a manic glee. Yugo’s eyes held a cold fire, but he started walking at pace with Yuya and Yuri. The hallway ended with one more steel door, identical to the rest. One of the three Obelisk members pressed a button on his duel disk, and the door opened. Inside, there were two bunk beds. It was sterile white, like everything else in the building. Yugo and Yuya were shoved forcefully inside, exasperating the bruises on the wrists from the tight bounds and the nasty shock.

                “Look at what happens when you resist. You couldn’t possibly hope to stand a chance agains-“ Suddenly, Yuri felt a force on his back. He landed on his face, pushed into the cell. Angrily he stood and whirled around to face his attackers.

                “What the hell do you think you all are doing?!” He growled.

                “The professor told us to put you in here with those two.” The boy pointed towards Yuya and Yugo, looking with surprise from the back of the cell.

                “He told you no such thing! I have loyally-“

                “I assure you, they speak no lie, Yuri.” From seemingly out of nowhere, Leo Akaba walked to the front of the cell. The Obelisk members backed away in unison, making a path for the large man to enter.

                “Why? Haven’t I been nothing but loyal?” Yuri cried out. He felt a twinge of fear slowing expand, as the realization of his predicament wash over him.

                “Maybe you’re gonna find out what it feels like to be someone’s enemy for no reason.” Yugo spat. Yuto strongly agreed and Yuya felt his mouth open to make that agreement verbal, but quickly closed it through his own will.

                “Yuri, you failed to capture Selena a number of times, and it was a separate force that captured her. You are in no position to plead your own loyalty. Besides, I have a plan, and you are integral to it. Better to keep you monitored here than of your own free will in some other dimension.”

                “But I-“ Yuri started to protest, but the door was slammed behind the Professor as he walked away. Yuri sprinted towards the door and slammed his fists against it pointlessly. Finally, he gave up and sank to his knees.

                “Why?...”

                “Don’t you think I asked that when you took Rin? Don’t you think all those innocent people asked that when you took their family and friends away?” Yugo’s voice was full of venom. He used a pole at the end of one of the bunk beds to swing himself up to the top bunk. He put his hands behind his head, closing his eyes. “Maybe your loyalty is as worthless to him as it is to me.”

                “Yugo…” Yuya felt a pang of sympathy for the guy. He went down with a lot more fight, and therefore got a lot more bruises when they got captured. It was four against one, and the Obelisk Force were no pushovers. Yugo was obviously in pain, and that was not helping his mood in any capacity. Yuri just stared at the door, as if someone would open it and save him. The three boys sat in awkward silence for a while. Yuri didn’t turn from the door, Yugo wordlessly stared at the ceiling on his bunk, and Yuya sat awkwardly on the opposing top bed from Yugo, waiting for something to happen. Yuto had gone quiet, which wasn’t unlike him. Yuya hated the silence. It felt so wrong, like there should be something happening, but there wasn’t.

                “So Yuri.” Yuya finally spoke up. “Do you, uh, know why we’re in here?” His voice was a bit shaky, and he was definitely uncomfortable with all the animosity in the room. The boy with the purple hair didn’t respond at first, he simply placed one hand on the door and gritted his teeth as he stared at the ground. After a few seconds, he spoke, unmoving.

                “If I knew why, I wouldn’t tell you.” Yuri’s voice was full of hatred, but broken anguish as well. Yuya sighed in resignation. Unfortunately, Yugo took this as an opportunity to throw another pass at the boy.

                “Cause’ you’re so much better than we are, locked up in this cell cause’ you probably didn’t have the guts to-“ Yugo’s insult was interrupted by Yuri whipping around to face him, his violet eyes narrowed, but also red. It looked like he had been crying,

                “YOU DON’T KNOW A THING ABOUT ME! SHUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I-“ Yuri began to scream, but Yugo taunted right back, sliding off of his bed to get in a fighting stance, which was difficult with handcuffs.

                “Before you what? Scream some more? You’re pathetic. Without a duel disk, you couldn’t fight your way outta a paper bag. In the Satellite, you’re what we would call ‘dead meat’.” Yugo chided, pushing his left leg back and slightly wincing at the pain from his bruises. Yuri didn’t assume a battle position, but instead stood with his arms at his sides, looking almost unsure.

                Yuya was getting sick of hearing these two argue, but he wasn’t exactly in a mood to get in between them. Yuto, on the other hand, was fed up.

                “GET YOURSELVES TOGETHER. WE’RE STUCK HERE AND WE’VE ALL DONE SOME SHIT WE REGRET. DEAL WITH IT.” Yuya found himself yelling against his will, feeling Yuto’s influence immediately withdraw with a slight hint of guilt. Yuya resisted the urge to clasp his hand over his mouth and instead chose to roll with the line, glaring at the two other boys in the room.

                Yuri was pacified first. He was shocked by Yuya’s angry outburst, but he walked over the bed under Yuya’s and sat on it, burying his head in between his hands. Yugo kept a defensive position, but eventually spat and swung himself back up to his bunk, using the bedpost as leverage. He obviously had some trouble, as his left leg was too bruised to give him good leverage.

                _“So Yuto, you got any bright ideas?”_ Yuya felt weird talking to Yuto like this, but Yugo and Yuri weren’t very good conversationalists at the moment. Granted, Yuto wasn’t exactly much of a talker himself.

                _“Not in particular. We’re cuffed, our duel disk is gone, and our deck along with it. Hey, does Yuri still have a duel disk? He wasn’t mugged on the way here.”_

 _“Nah. Everyone but that one Obelisk had to check their disks in at the front, and everyone had to give up their deck. I guess it’s so the prisoners can’t get to em’_.” Yuya winced as he remembered Odd-Eyes and Dark Rebellion were in that disk. It felt wrong to be apart from those cards, like they were a part of him.

                _“Maybe we should just sleep it off. There’s not much else to do.”_ Yuto offered up.

                _“Easy for you to say, you don’t have to feel all these bruises.”_ Yuya groaned. Sleep was not going to happen when he was in this much pain in a brightly lit white room.

                _“I can take over if you need to rest. Most of the time I just kinda sleep inside your head, or something that can be called sleep. It’s… It’s become easier to take over now now honestly. Take that however you will.”_ Yuto offered up. Yuya’s initial reaction was to say no, but then he considered it. He hated feeling out of control, Yuto’s possession felt very similar to Berserk mode, but he was tired. Not just physically, but emotionally. The more he considered it, the more the idea of just going away into his mind for a little while sounded appealing. No more pain, no more thinking. Just sleep.

                _“Al-Alright. I think I need it.”_ Almost instantaneously, Yuya felt the disconnect. The first time it happened, the shock was so sudden of having control ripped away from his body, it felt painful. But now that he was expecting it, it was like someone was slightly tugging on the back of his neck. He felt himself sink farther back, his vision slowly being pulled from his eyes and he felt peace as one final pinching feeling in his neck released him from his pain. All of his pain was gone, and he just closed his eyes and stopped thinking, going into a state that resembled unconsciousness.

                The first thing Yuto was aware of was a haze of pain. Five more seconds and he generally was able to tell where the origins of the pain was. Back of his left leg, both wrists, three separate places on his back, and his shoulder all stung. Still, there was something comforting in the pain. Feeling. For so long Yuto only had his and Yuya’s emotions to deal with, being a soul and all. Now he could move muscles, bone, physical matter around. Granted it hurt like hell to do so, but the feeling was relaxing all the same.

                He momentarily searched for Yuya’s soul, mostly out of habit. He felt the presence was weak, but there. Yuya had been through a lot. Yuto somewhat felt guilty for retracting into their mind whenever a painful experience arose, but he knew there wasn’t much that could be done if he shared the pain. Sharing the pain did nothing but make both of them irritated afterwards.

                “Yuya…” The voice was wavering, unsure. Yuto didn’t react at first, but suddenly remembered whose body he was in. He scrambled to respond to Yuri.

                “Yeah?” He noted to look for any end to the conversation, as he was not in the mood to talk. Especially not to someone from the Fusion dimension.

                “Do you know what happened to the us from the XYZ dimension? It sounds weird, but he disappeared a while after appearing in your dimension and I don’t know…” Yuri trailed off, not completing his sentence. He sounded broken, as if someone had come and ripped his soul apart.

                “No.” A blatant lie, but the firmness of it dissuaded any further conversation. Yuya probably would’ve answered, but Yuto never would. Not to a fusion summoner.

                “Oh.” The voice was so small, so fractured, Yuto almost felt pity graze his mind. He quickly waved it off and rolled over in bed, trying to ignore the stinging bruises. He let his thoughts wander to Ruri. Her pretty smile, her kind heart, her blue eyes… wait, what? The picture of Ruri morphed for a moment, changing into a similar yet different girl. Yuto knew this was Yuya’s Ruri, and he couldn’t help but feel annoyed at their bond for melding memories like this. Yuzu was a nice girl, but she was no Ruri. She didn’t have that soft voice that could make him forget about the war. She didn’t have the soft touch that always seemed to comfort. She didn’t have that beautiful singing voice- Agh! Once again the line between Yuzu and Ruri blurred.

                 Yuya never had to deal with this problem, because Yuto bothered keeping his thoughts to himself most of the time. Yuya was an open book for Yuto to read, and he never bothered to close it. Yuya thought about Yuzu a lot. Not constantly, but enough of the time she had crossed Yuto’s thoughts on more than one occasion as well. He felt like he was betraying Ruri for thinking of Yuzu, but he couldn’t really stop it. There were other memories between him and Yuya that blended, but those were the most annoying. He decided to stay away from the subject of Ruri.

                His mind drifted for a while more before he was thinking about Shun. He wondered what the guy was going to do now that Yuya was kidnapped. He had already lost his sister, and now his best friend was in a cell in Academia. He wanted badly to talk to Shun, but he never could find the words to say. Now he couldn’t talk to Shun even if he found them. Yuto decided, somewhat ironically, that sleep was the best option. He didn’t know if he’d wake up with control or not, but knowing Yugo was in no mood to talk and Yuri was a broken mess gave him no incentive to stay awake. He let the darkness wash over him and followed Yuya into the sweet embrace of sleep.


	2. Stolen Away

Yuto was jolted awake by the sound of an opening door.

                “Mr. Sakaki, you’re coming with us.” It wasn’t an Obelisk Force member. Instead, a scientist in the most stereotypical of white lab coats walked in. She had tousled maroon hair in a ponytail, and her face was set at a bored expression. Yugo and Yuri had both bolted up from their sleeping positions as well to stare at the new entry.

                “And if I refuse?” Yuto dared to ask. Yuya still felt weak in the back of his mind, and he didn’t know what kind of questions they planned on asking him. The question crossed his mind of how a boy could possibly sleep for that long, but he guessed having no physical requirements might have something to do with that. But before he could ponder about his conundrum even more, a sudden shock burned his wrists. It was enough to make his fall out of his bed onto the floor. The scene would have been comical if he hadn’t hit his bruised shoulder. A searing pain in his shoulder matched the one in his wrists. One quick glance told him Yugo was shocked as well.

                “Get up.” The scientist’s tone was annoyed, almost like a whiny teenager. Yuto got himself up as fast as he could, trying to avoid another shock. The scientist then gestured for him to follow him. He noticed even though her composure seemed calm, she always kept a hand near the shock button on her duel disk.

                Yuto felt a Yuya jerk awake as another wave of pain crashed over him, like an aftershock. Yuya was disoriented, but eventually managed to figure out the situation.

 _“Jesus, what did you do? That hurt!”_ Yuya exclaimed.

 _“Took a spill out of bed, got shocked by handcuffs, and being forced to walk really sucks.”_ Yuto looked at the back of the scientist in front of him, trying to see if he could get her duel disk off of her, but he saw no way he could do that injured while in handcuffs.

 _“Where are they taking us?”_ Yuya asked, but Yuto could only shrug in response, which prompted both boys to feel a new sensation of burning rip through them.

 _“Okay, no more shrugging! If they want Yuya Sakaki to question though, it might be better if I take control.”_ Yuya offered.

_“Warning you now, I feel like hell.”_

_“I know. We’re kind of the same person, remember?”_ The half-hearted attempt at a joke got a laugh out of neither boy, but Yuto let control go completely, and felt the pain funnel away as if down a drain. Yuya had felt the initial unpleasant shock of Yuto’s new pain, but this was a whole different ballgame. Yuya felt bruises ache, his shoulder burned, and his wrists were sore. His clothes were kinda grimy, and his favorite jacket was torn. Everything about his current situation sucked. He lagged a little behind the scientist lady, trying to take in all the new sensations of being in a body again.

              “Hurry up!” Her voice was like ice water, and he quickly picked up the pace. He stared straight at her right arm that was hovering above a little button on her disk. Thank the gods she didn’t press it, but he noted to be aware of his actions.

              “We’re here.” Yuya watched her step aside to reveal a chrome door with blue energy pulsing through wires in the middle. She pressed numbers on a keypad and the door slid open. She stepped aside, and looked inside. Yuya didn’t move, not wanting to disobey in any way for fear of a shock from his chains.

              “Well?” She asked, annoyance bleeding through her voice. “Go in!” Yuya briskly walked inside of the room. There was a board with restraints in the middle, with wires and electrodes adorning the area around it. A large computer on the end of the room was covered by three scientists and Leo Akaba intently watching it. When Yuya walked in, Akaba turned to face the boy.

              “Thank you Ms. Rose. You are dismissed.” The girl’s posture straightened at the sound of the Professor’s voice, and she scurried out of the room, leaving Yuya unattended. For a split second, he glanced around for some way to escape, but then Leo cut in to interrupt his thoughts.

              “Even if you did manage to escape, around fifty guards will be alerted with the ability to control those binds of yours. “ Yuya let out a sigh of resignation. His shoulder still pulsed with pain, and he was having a hard time concentrating anyway. Two of the scientists at the front of the room got up from the computer and walked over to Yuya. They led him over to the table with restraints, where they strapped his ankles.

              One of the scientists had blue hair, and he was digging around in his pocket for something. He procured a little box that looked like a flash drive. The guy waved it near Yuya’s handcuffs, and they unclasped, finally releasing his wrists. The relief was only momentary as a wave of pain hit the now unbound nerves in his hands. The other scientist, she had brown eyes with cats-eye glasses, pulled Yuya’s arms out to their sides to strap them to the table. Both scientists quickly went to work attaching electrodes all over his body. When the female scientist got to his shoulder, he let out a sharp hiss of discomfort.

             “Professor, his shoulder is dislocated. There are several bruises on his body, and likely a lot of internal injuries as well.” The scientist with the blue hair observed.

             “Alright. You know what to do.” Strangely, Leo Akaba then just walked out of the room. He didn’t say anything, or indicate that he gave any orders. As the last of the wires was attached to Yuya’s body, the door sealed shut behind the Professor.

             “Alright, uh… Yuya?” The female scientist squinted at a sheet. Yuya could barely see a picture of himself with basic information, like height and weight. He didn’t want to know where they got that information, but he decided asking was not the best option.

             “Your arm is going to need to be popped back into place. Take a deep breath.” She pushed his arm up, causing immense agony to shoot through the left side of his body.

             “AGH!” He screamed, the pain was way too much. He had dislocated his shoulder before, but this on top of all the other injuries was excruciating. The scientist with the brown eyes almost looked… guilty? She turned to her colleague with the blue hair.

             “Can you give him the IV?” The guy nodded wordlessly. Yuya tried to crane his neck to see the third scientist over at the computer. It was another guy, this time with dark green hair. He hadn’t turned from the computer since Yuya had gotten here. The guy with the blue hair grabbed something in Yuya’s peripheral vision. He walked over towards Yuya, and the large needle made his stomach twist in knots. Against his better judgement, he spoke up.

             “What is that?” The guy didn’t respond, but traced Yuya’s wrist before sticking the needle in. He winced when it pierced his skin, but a couple moments later, he started feeling woozy. Whatever they were pumping into him worked very fast. His eyes started feeling tired, and a wave of sleepiness hit him like a freight train. He tried to reach for Yuto, but his mind was getting blurrier by the second.

              "Y-ya. You have... awake...You..."Yuto's voice in is head was warped, and barely distinguishable against a sudden pounding against his skull..He tried to stay awake, but his pounding head started to lull him to sleep. His last conscious thought was a vague warning from Yuto, whose voice too distorted to even make out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I ask for your thoughts. Thank you to every reader, I hope you like this story. Next time on Dragonball Z: We check out Yugo and Yuri's situation in the cell. I apologize for the shortness of the chapter, I'll make up for it next time, I promise. Also, you can bug me on my tumblr at winged-archer-art-blog. I've drawn some clothes swap art of the bracelet girls wearing the Yu's clothes.


	3. Sick Memories

                 Yuri was in an awkward position. After they had taken Yuya, he and Yugo sat in silence, before Yugo returned to his bed. Neither boy exchanged any words, but the tension in the room was definitely high. Yuri didn’t know what to do. The betrayal from the academy was so unexpected, so awful… he wasn’t exactly sure what to do. They had prepared him for every situation… except this. Suddenly, Yuri made a decision.

                “Yugo.” He started, sucking in his breath. The other boy made no motion to indicate he had heard Yuri, but the he continued speaking. “While Yuya’s gone, perhaps it is best you say what you will to me now?” It felt incredibly weird and Yuri was already regretting asking it, but he didn’t want silence for the rest of his days spent here.

                “What have I got to say to you? You’re the one who took my family, tried to take my friend, and killed god knows how many people.” Yugo was speaking. That was a start.

                “Look… I’m not- That is to say-” Yuri rarely found himself flustered, but this was a rare occasion where the words simply wouldn’t come. “If there’s any questions you want to ask me, I’ll tell you what I know.” Hopefully the other boy would put away his grudge with Yuri if he gave information. Yuri planned on escape, and Yugo would be a big obstacle to that if he remained an enemy. As much much as it sickened Yuri, he decided to play nice for the time being. He needed Yugo and Yuya's trust, they were his one chance out of this place. 

                “That’s a change. What happened to ‘If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.’?” Yugo had a terrible high falsetto impression of Yuri, much to the purple-haired boys chagrin.

                “Look, it is beneficial to both parties if we exchange information. It’s quite obvious you don’t know anything about this dimension. Stop being pointlessly petty and listen to me!” Yuri’s voice was more stable and commanding, as Yugo was used to hearing. Yuri recognized the hypocrisy of making a statement about sharing information when he declared his loyalty to the academy only hours ago, but he had the right to change his opinion, right?

                “There it is. I thought for a second you had lost that smug sense of self-superiority.” Yugo really was intent on being stubborn.

                “I’ll have you know-“ Yuri began to shout, but stopped himself. He took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for the painful words he was about to say. “Look, I’m sorry. I know that means absolutely nothing to you, but I am. So please just listen to me this once. I’m not even asking you for anything, I’m offering my knowledge! Just take it!” Yuri was flat out lying. Out of all the emotions he felt right now, sorrow for what he had done was not one of them, but he was hoping Yugo would begrudgingly agree. He swallowed his pride, he had to get that guy to trust him. There was no way he would escape if he couldn’t get that simpleton to cooperate.

                “Fine. What’s the deal with the Obelisk Force? Are you their leader or something?” This though made Yuri snort with laughter.

                “Leader? I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a Slifer Red.” Yuri scoffed. This seemed to perk Yugo’s attention.

                “What’s that supposed to mean?” Yugo asked. It suddenly occurred to Yuri that the dorm factions probably didn’t exist in other dimensions. They were so second nature to him he didn’t even give their existence a thought.

                “Well, all children are sent to Duel Academy when they turn ten.” Yuri began. “Some are sent to a prep school earlier, but all kids are shipped away to Duel Academy eventually. When you get to Duel Academy, they check your grades in previous schools and your previous duel performance and put you into a dorm.”

                “What’s all this gotten do with you being a knifer red or whatever you said?” Yugo sounded impatient, but at least he was listening to Yuri.

                “I’m getting to that! Anyway, there are three dorms you can be sent to. Obelisk Blue is the dorm where the highest performing duelists are sent. They get treated with the best accommodations and the elite of the school.”

                “So it’s like the tops?” Yugo interjected.

                “I don’t know what that is. But based on the word, they are the ‘top’ of the school food chain. They get the highest clearance to areas in the academy.” Yuri explained.

                “Huh, that’s kinda weird.” Yugo sat back on his bed, pulling his legs in towards himself.

                “Anyway, the dorm just below Obelisk Blue is Ra Yellow. That’s where the majority of students end up, actually. They have average grades and average dueling ability. Then there’s the Slifers. The dorm that holds the worst performing duelists or the students with the worst grades. They give us the worst living area, and we are always the last to get food.” Yugo seemed interested in this, to Yuri’s surprise.

                “Wait, do they not always give you food? Just cause’ you’re at the bottom?”

                “It doesn’t happen often, but there are limited resources. Slifers are used to catching their own food, I will admit.” Yuri replied.

                “Wait, why are you in the worst dorm, but you got sent out on a special mission? There wasn’t anyone else with you when you kidnapped Rin.” Yugo inquired.

                “Well, I would be an Obelisk if grades were not a large factor in your ranking. I have no use for things like Alchemy or Geometry. I know how to duel, and that’s all that matters to me. So I don’t always... go to class.” Yuri sounded embarrassed when he admitted this, and Yugo decided to keep this in mind for future taunting.

                “So the Professor saw you could duel and sent you even though you got bad grades?”

                “Basically, yes. Though I do have something of a reputation at Duel Academy. I actually hospitalized several Obelisks when I first came here.” Yuri felt a sly smirk creep onto his face as he remembered that day.

                “Ouch. What’d the school do to you?” Yuri laughed.

                “Nothing. The Obelisks initiated the conflict, and I won it. Why punish success?” Yuri was pleased remembering the instance, back when he had power. Now it was all stripped away, and Yuri felt his smile drop as the present caught up with him.

                “Your dimension is not as different from mine as I thought, honestly.” Yugo admitted. “So what’s the Academy like? I’ve only heard some stuff from Yuya and Yuzu.” Yuri was a bit taken aback at the question, but pleased to find himself in a conversation.

                “Well, I’ve been at the Academy for four years now, but this is my first year in the real school. Everything up until is just teaching the kids the basics of dueling and essential knowledge. You get eight classes a day and three meal times. You also have required duels where you must accept and complete one duel a week.”

                “What if no one will duel you?” Yugo kind of blurted out the question, but that was how he spoke in general.

                “That’s actually happened to me a few times. You can put your name in this duelist pool and they’ll find a random opponent for you. By the end of the week, there’s always some unlucky kid who couldn’t get an easy duel and has to enter.” Yuri lightly chuckled, remembering the Slifers and Ras who were terrified to see their opponent was Yuri. His win record was actually incredibly good, he had lost to a select few upperclassmen Obelisks, but that was rare.

                “Do you card people at the academy?” The question was a bit pointed, but valid all the same. Yuri began to shake his head, but he stopped when he thought about the matter for a second.

                “Sort of. We don’t card people as a punishment or anything. You get carded if you try to escape the island. I think only a couple students have been foolish enough to try that.” Yuri remembered one of them was a Slifer in his class. He had actually felt a little sad when he heard she was gone; she was a nice girl.

                “So you’re all prisoners here?”

                “Of course no-“ Yuri stopped to think about it. He had never thought of Duel Academy as a prison. Sure he could never leave, but he had never wanted to. It is true punishments were harsh and the ultimate penalty of death was a real threat, but he had never dared skirt a toe near that line. Still, the similarities became more apparent with every passing second. How could such a simple question be so damn poignant?

                Every second they dueled, the teacher’s faces were cold with judgement. Everyone had some fear for their lives. He knew weakness was not an option. Those who lost duels often were often punished severely. Yuri felt ill as he thought about the academy punishments. He was never subjected to the horrible ones, but he had witnessed them. Yuri had learned pretty early on not feel sorry for them, because interfering meant sharing the blame with the accused. He even learned to take joy in their suffering after a while.

Demonstrations of those students’ torture used to mean nothing to him, but now the memories began to make him sick. Suddenly funny memories of a Ra who had been electrocuted for getting a straight five lose streak became horrifying. A Slifer being forced to go without food for days until he had won a duel. Another one who was refused entrance into the dorm for a week.

For years Yuri had found these events to be commonplace, but now he found them disgusting. Bile rose to the back of his throat. Memories that used to be nonchalant suddenly were gruesome. He remembered a terrified Obelisk girl thought she was going to be killed for sneaking into the laboratory. She begged for mercy, falling to her knees. Yuri had actually felt disdain for this poor girl when her punishment was just a demotion to Ra. God, he was making himself sick. Yuri grabbed a bedpost and tried to shut out the thoughts, but memories kept flashing to the front of his mind, now with the filter of reality making the awful scenes finally catch up to the poor boy. He let a shaky answer find its way to Yugo.

                “We- we don’t think of ourselves as prisoners. I’ll say that.” Yuri finally decided. His voice shook, much to Yugo’s surprise.

                “Did you really only think of this just now?” That idiot was blunt as always.

                “I’ll say this: even if the thought crossed my mind, there’s nothing I could’ve done about it.” Yuri had grown rather pale, Yugo felt something in his stomach looking at Yuri. Was it pity? Somehow, the guy was shaken by something that seemed incredibly obvious to Yugo. Still, even with all the hate he felt towards Yuri, his shaking form now was so broken that anyone could feel sorry for him.

                “Hey… are you okay?” The words felt weird coming out of Yugo’s mouth, but Yuri looked really bad. He was pretty pale, he was shivering, and his pupils were dilated.

                “No. I… I need some time to think.” Yuri looked sick, but Yugo had no idea what he could do. Or if he wanted to do anything at all. He felt some sympathy for Yuri, which was already strange, but he still held a strong animosity towards the guy. Suddenly, the door at the front of the cell slammed open.

                “Ugh, this guy’s heavy.” Two Obelisk Force members stood before the door with Yuya draped unconsciously over their shoulders. Yugo and Yuri jerked to look at the intruders, but didn’t dare make a move towards them.

                “Remember, the Professor told us not to “aggravate his injuries.” or something like that.” The two let Yuya down somewhat gently onto the floor, and then promptly left.  Yugo scrambled down from his bed once the door slammed shut.

                “Yuya!” Yugo went straight for wrist to check for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt it, fairly strongly. “Looks like he’s out cold, whatever they did to him.” Yugo noted. He noticed that there were filmy liquids and little puncture points over Yuya’s bruises. Rin was always better at the doctor stuff than him, but he still felt the need to help Yuya. Yugo bit his lip.

                “Yuri!” Yugo barked. The boy was startled; Yugo saw he was still fairly shaken up. “Help me get him onto a bed!” Wordlessly, Yuri moved over by Yuya’s feet and put his hands under the unconscious boy’s ankles. Yugo managed to awkwardly position his handcuffs to support Yuya’s back. The two boys managed to get him onto the bed below Yugo’s with difficulty. Yuri was fine, but Yugo’s bruises stung from the extra strain.

                “What are we going to do?” Yuri asked. His voice was timid, far from its usual brash superiority. Yugo bit his lip, thinking hard.

                "Honestly, there’s nothing I can do while I’m in cuffs. Might as well let him sleep, better than being awake in the hellhole.” Yugo groaned as he had to once again push off the bedpost to swing up to the top bunk. His bad leg screamed, and he was beginning to worry about it being broken. Yuri returned to his own bed, rolling to face the wall.

                After twenty or so minutes, Yugo was surprised by the sounds of soft snores. His first instinct was to look under his bed, but Yuya was silent. He almost let out a giggle when he realized Yuri, the sadistic wielder of a dragon called Starve Venom, sounded like a kitten in his sleep.  The boy had unknowingly pulled his knees up to his chest, and Yugo was tempted to wake him up just for the perfect teasing opportunities. Yugo decided to remain quiet to let the other boys sleep. He put his hands behind his head, trying to adjust with the handcuffs. He had a little trouble with the links in the middle, but he managed to find a comfortable position. The lights didn’t ever dim, but the fatigue and plain will to sleep made dozing off pretty easy. Soon, all three boys in the room were in dreamless sleep, waiting for the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like I could've handled this part better, but I think its a good first attempt. I rewrote Yuri's revelation almost four times, trying to get word choice and length down. Whatever the case, please leave a comment of your thoughts! See you again Thursday! EDIT: I rewrote the dialogue at the beginning of the chapter after several notes were made about Yuri's odd behavior. Hopefully I got the point across.


	4. Awakening

                 “Unnghhhh.” The moans snapped Yuri awake. He flipped over to see Yuya groaning as consciousness slowly came to him. A quick dart of the eyes told Yuri that Yugo was still sleeping. Yuya began to stretch his arms, and Yuri noticed the lack of handcuffs on him. He probably should’ve saw it when he was carrying the guy around, but his was only now that the thought even crossed his mind.

                Yuri’s mind was still in an extremely screwed up state. The betrayal of Academia was one thing, and that left him in tatters, but the thought of Academia as a place that tortured kids… It left him broken. Prison didn’t begin to describe this place. Yuri knew no one else would understand… who could? The memories of his classmates who had gotten killed in the war suddenly terrified him. Before, he had thought of them as weak, but something triggered with his imprisonment. Now, he was weak. He didn’t, no, he refused to empathize with the unfortunate classmates who had been punished, killed, or worse. However, every single memory was tainted by his predicament. The realization of how often Yuri could’ve been tortured, and was tortured, was weighing on his mind all at once. He was so used to winning in the game that getting removed from play tore him apart.

                “Urggggg.” Yuya’s awakening was not graceful. He was still half asleep, moving, but not aware. It sounded as if he was struggling to wake up. Yuri walked over to the fidgeting form of the boy and gently shook his right shoulder.

                “Mmmmmm.” Yuya’s eyes scrunched up, and he pulled his arms in toward him a little. then suddenly blinked open. They were still obviously sleepy, but he was finally on the conscious side of sleep. Yuri stepped back to let the boy get up.

                “Yuri…?” Yuya sounded confused, like he was trying to piece together the information in his head.

                “Be quiet, the idiot from Synchro is trying to sleep.” Yuri’s voice was a whisper. Yuya managed to blink some of the sleep out of his crimson eyes, though they still appeared glazed over.

                “What’d they do to you?” The boy with purple hair asked in a hush. Yuya’s eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed in concentration.

                “I don’t really know. They took off my handcuffs, then they strapped to this table. They put some liquid thing in me, and then I passed out. I don’t remember anything past that.” Yuya crossed his arms and tried to wrack his brain for anything past that, but he was coming up blank.

_“Yuto, what do you remember?”_

_“I’m limited to your senses. If your eyes and ears aren’t taking anything in, I’m not either.”_ Yuto gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.

                “So how are the bruises?” Yuri asked. Empathy was kind of a new feeling. He hadn’t realized it, but he had completely shut it down completely to survive in Academia. Now he felt so broken he hoped he could reach out to Yuya and Yugo. Before they were a mean to an end, but now, they were his one literal emotional outlet. Yuya was very surprised at even this display of kindness.

                 “Uh… are you feeling okay?” Yuya asked hesitantly. Yuri felt himself give a very hollow smirk as he closed his eyes.

                 “Nope. Haven’t been for a while. How’s the bruises?” Yuri repeated. Yuya rolled his left shoulder with hesitation, and then gasped in surprise.

                  “Hey! It doesn’t hurt as much!” Yuya actually smiled as he moved his shoulder a bit more. The pain was still there, but significantly less than before. In fact, all of his bruises and aches were dulled.

                  “SHHH!” Yuri cast a wary eye up to Yugo, who only had shifted a bit. He was still sound asleep. Yuya gave a little squeak of surprise and then shut his mouth.

                  “Well, that’s good.” Yuri declared as he uncomfortably slid back into his own bed. Yuya was still shocked by the guy’s open display of anything other than anger or smugness. Yuri avoided eye contact, and Yuya went from his sitting position on his bed to laying down. He reached for his pendulum necklace, but his hand was stopped by the feeling of thick metal on his neck. Where his usual choker was, a metal collar surrounded his neck. He tugged at it, but it only moved marginally. Great, that was probably some tracking device or other Academia had put on him. Still, he fingered around the collar and felt a wave of relief when the pendulum necklace was still there. He pulled it over his red and green hair, swinging it just above his eyes.

 _“What are you doing?”_ Yuto inquired.

 _“Doing this helps calm me down. Reminds me of my Dad. Mom said it was a coping mechanism or something.”_ Yuya did feel a strange sense of calm as the little blue crystal swung left to right. His Dad had always explained the pendulum as a sign hope. The pendulum will always swing the other way, no matter how far it goes. No matter how awful a situation got, no matter the stakes, the pendulum will swing the other way eventually. Yuya continued to watch the pendant swing to and fro until a voice cut through his thoughts.

                   “Are you trying to hypnotize yourself or something?” Yuri’s voice was still low as to avoid waking Yugo, but he was still clearly heard.

                   “It’s just relaxing.” Yuya replied, still not taking his eyes off of the necklace. Yuri didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, so he continued.

                   “It’s relaxing to watch yourself dangle a little necklace in front of yourself. Are you the type to be entertained by jingling keys?” The callous sarcasm still shone through, though Yuya paid it no mind.

                   “Well, not like we’ve got the luxury of much else, right?” Left. Right. Left. Suddenly, the door slammed open at the front of the cell.

                   “We are here to retrieve Yugo Sokudo.” Two scientists were at the door. One of them was the girl who had escorted Yuya yesterday, but he didn’t recognize the other one. That guy was buff, and had dark brown hair. Yugo was still fast asleep, unfazed the loud crash of the door. Yuya was already anticipating the electric shock, but he realized that he no longer had the handcuffs on his wrists. They wouldn’t be able to shock him if-

                    “AGGGGHHHH!” A searing pain ran through Yuya, starting at his neck. The collar had shocked him. Yugo had released a similar scream from just above Yuya and was now most definitely awake.

                    “What the hell?” Yugo screamed, staring at the door entrance. His anger subsided slightly when he saw the two scientists. Yugo slid out of bed, and walked to the front of the room. As the two scientists led him out of the room, Yugo turned his head to called back to his cellmates, giving a shit-eating grin back to the two of them.

                    “See ya in a few. Bye Yuya. Yuri.” His sarcastically happy tone melted into one of disdain on the word ‘Yuri’. The door cell slammed shut, and Yuya and Yuri were left alone in the cell.

                    “So here we are again. What did you two do while I was gone?” Yuya tried to keep a light-hearted tone, but his head was pounding from the shock, and he could feel the slightest hint of the darkness at the back of his mind trying to creep out. He quickly slammed a mental wall up against it, but he could still feel it there. That was not good. He was actually glad when Yuri’s coarse response broke his thoughts.

                    “We mostly sat in silence silently judging the other. I’d rather not repeat that experience.” Yuri sat on his bed with his leg neatly crossed over the other, his head slightly cocked to the left as if he was analyzing Yuya. He had decided to leave out their little conversation at the end of that experience.

                    “Well… uh… do you know when they serve the prisoners lunch? Cause’ I’m kinda starving.” Yuya’s comment was well timed to the grumbling of his stomach. He hadn’t eaten since he had tried to infiltrate Academia with Yugo.

                    “Now that you mention it, I’m famished as well. I doubt they’ll starve us to death, but we might not be getting food for a long time. How long can you hold out?” Yuri’s concern felt incredibly alien to both the boys. Yuri was so used to feeling absolutely no empathy, and Yuya was prepared for nothing but pessimistic sarcasm. Yuya was so ready to be the initiator of the conversation. He wasn’t sure how to react to Yuri’s, for lack of a better word, hospitality.

                     “I, uh, guess I could hold out a few days. In XYZ we didn’t get too much food, so I’m kind of used to it.” Yuya was worried. He had no idea how long he’d been out, so the passage of time was weighing on him. The lights in this place never dimmed, and there wasn’t a single window.

                     “In XYZ? What on earth were you doing there?” Yuri seemed to perk up at this tidbit of information.

 _“Just to let you know, he was looking for me. Don’t tell him about it; I don’t trust him. If he blabs about the Resistance and its location, that would be very bad. Don’t screw this up.”_ Yuto cut through Yuya’s mind, warning the other boy.

                      “Uh… there was a dimensional mix-up cause’ of Jean-Michel Rogers in Synchro. I ended up in XYZ until Yugo came in.” Nothing about that was technically wrong, though a large portion of the story was notably missing, Yuya prayed Yuri didn’t notice. Apparently God wasn’t answering today.

                      “What happened before you found Yugo?”  Yuri shifted his weight forward, scrutinizing Yuya’s expression.

 _“I am a terrible liar.”_ Yuya thought apologetically to Yuto.

 _“Yeah, I noticed.”_ Yuto’s answer was mostly in jest, but Yuya still felt a slight panic from his other soul as his mind scrambled to think up a story where the resistance wasn’t involved.

                      “Some of the Lancers got teleported with me. We mostly fought off Obelisk Force members who were still in XYZ. There were a few survivors from the invasion; they brought us food.” Yuya hated how his hands fidgeted. Again, he wasn’t exactly telling a lie, but the truth wasn’t all there either.

                      “I… see.” Yuri obviously wanted to prod Yuya more, but he didn’t ask any more questions, much to Yuya’s relief. The darkness at the back of his mind had completely ebbed away along with most of the pain from the shock. Yuya didn’t know why, but the electric shock gave a very strange sense of déjà vu that he couldn’t quite place. He adjusted his goggles, which were slipping down over his bangs.

                      “What’s with the aviator goggles? Do you ever use them?” Yuri kept one arm crossed over his chest, as he rested his elbow on it to point at the item in question.

                      “Oh, these? My dad gave em’ to me. I use during some duels if there’s a lot of moving around. The wind gets in my eyes and I can’t really see where I’m going. I got a lot of use out of them in the Synchro dimension with turbo duels.” Yuya pulled the goggles off of his head completely to examine them. Cautiously, he offered them to Yuri to look over. The violet-haired boy was hesitant to take them at first, but he grabbed them gently to look at them.

                      “What’s the deal with the star? It seems like it would impair your vision.” Yuri noted.

                       “Not as much as you would think, honestly. And the star is there cause’ it looks cool. My dad and I really liked the flashy stuff.” Yuya explained. He felt a small amount of happiness as he finally was managing to talk to one of his cellmates. He was relieved that he wasn’t totally alone in here.

 _“Do I not count?”_ Yuto interjected.

 _“Hey, you’re not the best at talking. Besides, we already literally know everything the other knows.”_ Yuya replied.

 _“Not everything…”_ Yuto’s voice sounded distant for a second, and Yuya felt a strange mixture of sadness and guilt coming from Yuto.

                      “Uh.. you can have your goggles back.” Yuya was snapped out of his thoughts by Yuri offering his headgear back. He slid them back on over the red part of his hair and returned to his bed. He wanted to ask Yuto about the whole ‘not everything’ bit, but the guy had receded into his mind. He would just have to wait until Yuto felt like talking again.

                      “You space out a lot, you know that?” Yuri remarked. Yuya bit his lip. If people noticed him talking to Yuto, he wasn’t sure he could keep that secret for long. Especially not when he had obviously talked to Yuto in front of several fusion dimension soldiers. He just prayed they weren’t observant.

                      “Are you just trying to prove my point?” Yuri muttered.

                      “Sorry, sorry! I do space out a lot.” Yuya apologetically smiled as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand.  “So what is life like in the Fusion dimension? If you don’t mind me asking, anyway.” Yuri’s eyes immediately narrowed, and his next words sent a chill through Yuya.

                      “I do mind.” For a spilt second, Yuri closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, almost as if he was fighting tears. “Ask Yugo when he gets back. I already told him everything I care to share.”

                      “You talked with Yugo? I thought you hated him?” Yuya was regretting the question as it came out of his mouth, and Yuri narrowed his eyes. His expression was not cold, but almost grief-stricken now. “Er… sorry. Bad timing.”

                      “Indeed.” Yuri was very formal now. He seemed to do that whenever he was angry. Maybe it was one of those coping mechanisms his mom was always talking about. She read a lot of self-help books, she was always talking about Yuya’s behaviors in a weird psychological sense. Yuya felt a pang of sadness as he thought about his mom. He hadn’t seen her in months… Oh god.

                      Yuya remembered the day his dad left very clearly. There was warning, no message, nothing. Yusho disappeared one day, and he never came back. Yoko had been strong the entire day. She held Yuya, she comforted him, and she was strong through the entire ordeal. That night was a different story. When she thought Yuya had gone to bed, she cried. She sobbed, she held the poster of Yusho close, and she whispered pleas and prayers that fell on silence. Wishes for Yusho to come back, for this all to be a bad dream, everything was ignored. Yuya had watched his mom have an emotional breakdown in their kitchen, and he had no idea what to do. He just sat by the edge of the balcony, feeling awful and sharing in his mother’s tears for Yusho. He wished that would never happen again. But now he abandoned his mother again.

                       He knew he had her blessing, and it wasn’t sudden like it had been with his dad, but he still couldn’t imagine what it was like for her to live home alone wondering if her son was still alive. He gritted his teeth. He refused to make her cry again. He would come home, with Yuzu. He had to. He couldn’t make his family cry again. And so, staring at the underside of a pristine white bed, clutching his pendulum necklace, Yuya made a promise to come home alive through whatever means necessary.  

_____________________________________________________________________________________

                       “Professor, we’ve gotten the results back on Yuya Sakaki’s diagnostics.” The girl stood straight, her short blue hair framing her glasses as she gave her report.

                       “And?”

                       “There seems to be severe trauma to the prefrontal cortex. Appears to be from electrical shock, based on the wound area.” She pushed her glasses up her nose as she tried to keep her posture straight.

                       “Interesting. Seems Rogers had his fun a bit too early.”

                       “I’m sorry, sir?” The girl immediately yipped as the Professor turned and gave her a wicked smile.

                       “This is Level 4 classified. You will not share this information with anyone, understood?” His voice was low, threat dripping on every syllable.

                       “Y-Yes sir!” The girl yipped.

                       “Well then, our intelligence in the Synchro dimension was going rogue. He was too selfish and wanted to appeal to me while still giving himself all the gain. From security footage the Obelisk Force appropriated, it seems he tried to use Yuya Sakaki for his own purposes, with no thought towards the boy’s well-being.” The man turned towards a computer screen and clicked on a file, which opened up a video of Yuya’s duel against Crow during the friendship cup. His eyes were glowing like bright red rubies through his goggles, full of rage and determination.

                        “I’m very interested in this power Yuya Sakaki possesses, that Roger rather unceremoniously tapped into. The girls might be one hindrance to our plans, but these boys might be our key to power.” The professor whipped around, giving a terrible smile at the poor little scientist girl.

                        “If I can manage to control this power in Yuya Sakaki, then I can begin the creation of the new world! He will be a powerful weapon, but this power is not his alone.” He closed the video file and clicked on a separate video right next to it. Here, Yuri was dueling. His eyes glowed, the pupils and iris completely blank as his expression held fury. The image shifted, and Yugo was shown dueling against two men in the slums, his eyes shining in the same manner as Yuri’s. Finally, a video clip of Yuto came, dueling the Slifers that invaded Heartland. His expression of rage matched the previous three boys’.

                        “These boys hold some kind of untapped power, and I want it.” Leo Akaba slammed his fists on the table, making the poor girl behind him jump.

                        “I need that last boy; he is the final piece of the puzzle. My son has been particularly annoying in hiding his presence. However, based on the footage we do have, Yuya seems to know him… I want you to use Yuya Sakaki to find Yuto. I understand you have memory reading technologies?”

                        “That’s the problem sir.” The girl shrank in fear as she delivered the bad news. “The device can cause serious damage if we aggravate his injury. We can get all his memories eventually, but not all at once. The process is going to be heavily delayed... we won’t have the information for two weeks based on this rate. And that’s saying the procedure goes smoothly!”

                        “Hmmm.” The man placed his hand on his chin, rubbing it in deep thought. “Do what you have to. If there are complications with the procedure, then tell me. Until then, proceed with the plan. I’ve waited this long, what’s two more weeks? Dismissed Ms. Cerulean.”

                        “Yes sir!” The girl practically tripped over herself to leave the room, and Leo turned once more to the video footage of the boys all dueling with glowing eyes and unspeakable anger in their expression.

                        “I will find your secrets yet, Yuya Sakaki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Yuya woke up! Yay. I'm not sure if was entirely clear, but the scientist people healed his injuries. He wouldn't know that right out, but that's what happened. And now he has a metal collar, Fun. As always, please leave you thoughts!


	5. Sudden Connection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Murica' day! NOTE: I MAY REFRAIN FROM POSTING NEXT MONDAY DUE TO A CONVENTION I WILL BE ATTENDING. So if there's no chapter next week, that's why.

                Yugo had long since returned and was now napping in the bed Yuya had slept in. Yuya climbed back into his original bed over Yuri’s. The boys had idle small talk while Yugo slept, but nothing of real substance happened. Then, Yugo started talking.

                “Hey, he’s waking up!” Yuya exclaimed, watching Yugo start to gain consciousness.

                “Goddammit Rin, five more minutes…” He muttered under his breath.

                “He’s got a mouth on him, doesn’t he?” Yuri observed. Yugo flipped over in his bed, still rambling.

                “No, I’m not gonna watch my fucking mouth. You’re not my mom…” Yugo flipped again in bed, obviously struggling against the urge to awake.

                “Did- Did I say anything weird when I woke up?” Yuya asked with concern.

                “No. You just moaned a lot.” Yuri affirmed, head cocked slightly as he watched Yugo writhe in his bed as he uttered curses at an invisible Rin. Then, his tone changed.

                “Hey, Rin… where are you going…? Rin?” Yugo started thrashing around wildly, and Yuri looked up at Yuya.

                “Should we help him?” Yuri asked. Yuya looked between the kicking form of Yuto and Yuri’s questioning face, and then sat back on his bed.

                “Let him wake up on his own. I don’t want to get punched.” Yuri nodded in agreement, and the two boys continued to watch their lookalike kick in his bed.

                “Don’t go…. Rin… please… don’t leave me…RIN!” As soon as he let out a scream, his eyes snapped open, and he jolted out of bed, breathing heavily. He looked around wildly, only to let his eyes catch the concerned expressions of Yuya and Yuri.

                “Guess I was having a bad dream… heh.’ Yugo let out a weak laugh before stretching his arms. When he did, Yuya noticed the metal collar clasped around his neck, presumably identical to his own.

                “Rin is the girl that looks like Yuzu, right?” Yuya asked.

                _“And Ruri.”_ Yuya wasn’t sure if Yuto had thought that or he had. That was somewhat concerning, but he had more important things to focus on. Sharing a mind with someone was really weird.

                “Yeah. God I haven’t seen her in forever… I miss her.” Yugo wiped a gloved hand near his eyes. “Hey, they finally took off those damn handcuffs!” He rubbed his wrists, which were bruised as badly as Yuya’s.

                “Well, by process of elimination, I suppose they’ll take me next? Anything I should prepare for?” Yuri tapped his fingers against the bed post, looking quizzically at his cellmates.

                “Okay, what the hell happened to you?” Yugo asked pointedly. “Before, you were all high and mighty, so loyal to Academia that you shouldn’t have _ever_ been thrown in the same prison as scum like us.” Yugo’s words were very accusatory, and even Yuya shrank a bit at them, though he was wondering the same thing.

                “But now, you’re suddenly all buddy-buddy with us. What’s the deal?” Yugo was practically yelling at Yuri, and the purple cloaked boy looked down, guilt crossing his face.

                “I don’t have an answer for you, honestly. What use is non-mutual loyalty anyhow? If my people will turn against me, why should I stay with them?” Yuri furrowed his eyebrows and gave a pointed glare to the wall, still avoiding eye contact with Yugo.

                “So you’re trying to get on our good side just cause’ you want to get back at Academia?” Yugo still had daggers in his eyes and voice, all ready to be thrown at Yuri. Yuya felt like an intruder, some third wheel watching the argument.

                “Look at our situation and honestly tell me what I have to gain by antagonizing the only people around me.” Yuri’s voice was very deadpan, as he raised one pink eyebrow at Yugo.

                “Well you’re not gonna just get off the hook for kidnapping and fucking murdering hundreds of people with an ‘I’m sorry’. So I’m not really feeling like telling you anything.” Yugo flipped over in bed to look away from Yuri. Yuri fought off an extremely strong urge to say, ‘Language, Yugo,’ because that was not going to help him any. To his surprise, Yuya finally intervened.

                “Um… Yugo?” His voice was not strong, but not completely timid either.

                “Yeah, Yuya?” Yugo’s voice was rough, but his tone was definitely lighter when addressing the other lookalike.

                “I’m not saying you should forgive Yuri for everything he’s done-“ Yuya began, but was interrupted very quickly by Yugo.

                “Yuya, I’m not listening to some kid’s cartoon PSA crap when we’re literally living with a sadistic murderer.” He tried to end the conversation there, but Yuya kept going.

                “Yugo, just hear me out.” Yuya pleaded. “We’re not going to get anywhere by just ignoring and hating each other. It’s gonna be really hard, but we all have to swallow our pride a little and actually work together. None of us are getting out of here on our own. But if we managed to band together, we could actually have a chance at escaping and finding Rin, Ruri, Serena, and Yuzu.” Yuya could tell Yugo perked up at the mention of Rin, so he kept going.

                “Look, I beat the Obelisk Force, a ton of students from Academia, and Security. And I couldn’t have done any of it if I didn’t have my friends with me. So now that I can’t reach them, you guys are all I have to rely on. We have to Yugo, you want to see Rin again, right? Then just accept that Yuri is here, and he’d not going away! You can be mad at him all you want after this is all over, but right now he’s all we’ve got. Okay?” Yugo let out a breath and looked at Yuya. Yuya had a face set in determination and it honestly looked like a mirror expression of his. If Yuya was as stubborn as he was, then there was only one logical conclusion.

                Yugo got up off his bed and walked over to Yuri, expression still cold. Practically glaring at the guy, he stiffly stuck out his hand and said, “Truce.” In a cold manner. Yuri was taken aback at first, but quickly got his bearings and returned the handshake, agreeing with Yugo.

                “Truce.” The boys shook hands for only a second before Yugo jerked away and returned to his bed, where he swung up the pole, putting most of the weight on his right leg. Yuya noticed how lopsided the swing was and looked at Yugo with concern.

                “Is your leg okay?” Yuya had once broken his leg while playing with his Dad in a circus duel arena. Yoko was not happy in the slightest, but she never stopped Yuya and Yusho from playing together. Yuya shook the memories from his mind and tried to tune into his current surroundings.

                “It’s sprained pretty bad if it’s not broken- Hey!” Yugo was testing his leg while he spoke, slowly apply force to it… and it barely hurt. Sure, there was a dull stinging in his leg, but it was nowhere near as excruciating as before. He hadn’t even noticed until Yuya mentioned it.

                “I don’t know what they did, but I think they fixed my leg!” He put some more force on it, pushing his leg against the bedpost. Again, a dull ache came, but no sharp or sudden pains.

                “They did the same with me!” Yuya said in surprise. “When I woke up, all of the bruises hurt less, but I’m confused. Why would they do that?” The three boys looked at each other, eyes widened as they wondered about Academia’s intentions.

                “Hmm… Well it stands to reason that they must have us in here for a reason beyond simple rebellion. If that was the case, they would have killed us. Perhaps they need us for something….” Yuri mused. “Though whatever that would be is beyond me.”

                “What do we have that they would want?” Yuya asked, his brow narrowed as he tried to come up with a reason. “I mean, I made Pendulum Summoning, but I doubt they’d throw you two in the bin for that.” He set his mouth in a grimace as he ran over every possibility, all coming up blank. The three boys sat in silence for a while, trying to think, but were interrupted by the large door in their cell crashing open.

                “Yuri. You will come with me.” Again, the teenage scientist with the exceedingly bored expression showed up, this time alone. Yuri glanced at Yugo and Yuya before walking to the front of the cell. The girl held a pair of handcuffs very similar to the ones Yugo and Yuya had previously adorned, and she quickly clasped them onto Yuri’s wrists. Yugo and Yuya flinched, they had enough bad experiences with those things.

                “Alright Yudoku, let’s go.” Yuri didn’t look back as he was escorted out.

                “Yudoku? What?” Yuya asked in a confused manner, but neither Yuri nor the girl answered, so Yugo mouthed ‘last name’ to Yuya, not wanting to anger the girl with the power to electrocute the them by saying the wrong thing.

                “How come you got two guards, but Yuri and I only got one?” Yuya questioned, tilting his head as the door slammed shut behind Yuri.

                “Probably something to do with those guard guys I beat the shit out of.” Yuya nodded, stifling a small laugh as he remembered Yugo giving two Obelisk Force members a black eye and one a broken arm. Yugo struggled all the way until handcuffs were forcibly shoved on him as the remaining guards kicked him into submission. Even though they hurt Yugo pretty badly, he left quite the imprint on the guards as well.

                “So what’d they do to you when they brought you in?” Yuya asked, the thought crossing his mind suddenly.

                “I don’t really know. They hooked me up to this machine thing, then they gave me some drug through a needle and I passed out. Next thing I know I was in here.” Yugo shrugged, and looked to the door. “You think that bastard’s gonna get the same thing? It’s not like he was hurt or anything.” Yugo observed.

                “Maybe. Who knows what they did while we were asleep? Well, except for these shock collar things.” Yuya uncomfortably shifted the collar on his neck, feeling its metal press against his skin.

                “Shock collars?” Yugo’s hand flew to his neck, and he frowned as he felt the thick metal circling it. “Well, that’s probably gonna be a problem.”

                “Yeah. When they shocked you to get you out of bed, they shocked me too. This collar seemed to be the thing doing it.” Yuya sighed. “At least they aren’t as restrictive as handcuffs.”

                Yugo kept feeling the collar, making a face as he did so. “Ugh. This is gonna be hard to get used to. I don’t like collars; they make me feel like some kind of dog.” Yugo groaned.  Yuya felt moderately offended at being compared to a dog (He was quite fond of chokers), but he knew Yugo didn’t really have a filter on his thoughts and just brushed it off. Then, suddenly, the door opened again.

                “Back already?” Yuya wondered aloud, but Yuri was not at the front of the cell. Instead, an Obelisk Blue student was carrying two trays with bread, water, and soup on them. Yuya felt his mouth salivate at the dinner, he hadn’t eaten in what felt like or could be days.

                “Here.” The Obelisk Blue held out the trays, and Yuya and Yugo scrambled from their high beds to take them. As they did, the Obelisk spoke, “Leave them at the front of the cell when you’re done, they’ll get picked up.” Even as the door was closing, the two boys began to eat.

                “Alright! Food!” Yuya and Yugo forgot any manners they had learned as they scarfed down the bread and soup, which was amazing after going so long without food. In only a minute, everything on both trays was gone. Both boys felt the satisfaction of being full, and they went to sit on their beds once more.

                _“Well, that felt good. Guess we haven’t eaten in a while.”_ Yuto thought, and Yuya could feel a small amount of joy coming from his other soul.

                _“Oh, so you don’t get to be hungry, but we can both feel full?”_ Yuya laughed mentally, though he felt a bit bad as guilt came crashing in from Yuto’s side of the bond. He immediately tried to consolidate his other half.”

                _“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m not asking you to feel pain for no reason. Not like you sharing the happy feelings are going to make them any less happy.”_ Yuto’s guilt lessened slightly, but Yuya still felt it strongly as Yuto receded into their mind again.

                “That was so damn good.” Yugo said as he stared up at the ceiling, patting his stomach.

                “You said it.” Yuya agreed, smiling.

                “Rin used to make soup like this, she was really good at it!” Yugo exclaimed. Yuya was suddenly shocked by a strange sense of nostalgic happiness that was definitely not his own. Ruri, Rin, Yuzu, which one was he thinking of again? Yuya pulled out of his thoughts in a panic.

                “Uh… Yugo?” He looked over to the other boy, who seemed oblivious.

                “Yeah?” Yugo asked back, still seemingly lost in memories. Yuya felt a flutter of panic as he realized he had linked minds with Yugo somehow. He was vaguely aware that he had done it before during the friendship cup, but that was during a duel. Yuya was used to weird stuff happening during duels. This was a new kind of feeling, like he was creating another mental bond with somehow. Yuya tried to order his thoughts, he didn’t want to tell Yugo about it if the other guy didn’t know, but he still was shaken by the sudden and far too deep connection.

                “Nevermind. I forgot what I was going to say.” Yuya lied, as he pulled away from his link with Yuto subconsciously. He probably should tell Yuto about the incident, but he wanted to distance his thoughts from others as much as possible at the moment. By force of habit, Yuya pulled the pendulum from around his neck and watched it swing back and forth, and he let his wild nerves slowly reach calm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we finally have some one on one Yugo/Yuya interaction. Please leave a comment of your thoughts, I love each and every one of you who do. Bug me on my tumblr @clear-winged-archer or @winged-archer-art-blog.


	6. Torture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: I would like to have a beta reader to help iron out some of the crinkles in my chapters. My only constraint is that you can send the chapter back to me before the next update, which at the very least will give you 24 hours to read and edit the chapter, usually more.

                 Yuri had come back unconscious, no big shock. A metal collar now adorned his neck. His awakening was much more graceful than Yugo’s and Yuya’s, he simply snapped awake sharply all of a sudden, though it scared the crap out of Yuya. He just went from sleeping peacefully to an upright position. Apparently, he got food shortly before they drugged him, so he wasn’t too sore about the lunch the other two boys shared. All three boys were simply sitting in the room on their respective beds, talking to each other now.

                “It’s kinda boring in here, huh?” Yuya observed. Yugo nodded in agreement, though Yuri kept silent.

                “Yeah! I haven’t gone so long without my duel runner. I think I’m missing it as much as Rin at this point.” Yugo agreed, stretching his arms.

                “Yeah, I know what you mean. Well, I’m not really missing my duel disk. I’m actually kind of missing my deck.” Yuya felt his deck pocket, even though he knew it was empty. “It feels… wrong to be without my cards.” Yuya admitted.

                “I concur; I have been missing my deck as well.” Yuri agreed. Suddenly, a wave of emotion hit Yugo like a freight train. He missed Odd Eyes, no, Starve Venom, Dark- wait- Clear Wings? The feeling of loss was so strong, he would’ve staggered had he been standing. Yugo blinked, as the emotional tidal wave passed and he moved back his senses. The other boys seemed unchanged, so he decided to blurt out in his usual fashion.

                “What the hell was that?!” The other two boys blinked in surprise as they looked at him quizzically.

                “What do you mean? Are you okay Yugo?” Yuya questioned with concern.

                “Did you guys just, I mean, didn’t you feel that?” Yugo stumbled over his words as he tried to articulate the insane feeling.

                “Feel what? Did you get shocked or something?” Yuri looked incredulous as he absentmindedly tugged at his own collar nervously.

                “No, it was like, I felt stuff that I wasn’t feeling- Ugh! This is really hard to explain.” Yugo a breath, and noticed Yuya’s eyes seemed to have shifted, almost in understanding?

                “Was it a sudden memory or emotion that wasn’t yours? Like, you suddenly felt something you know you shouldn’t be?” Yuya asked, his voice turning very serious.

                “Exactly! What, does that happen to you?” Yugo mentally thanked Yuya for describing the feeling for him, but now he was curious.

                “Uh- _Crap, sorry Yuto, can you take over?. You know I’m really bad lying.”_ Yuya searched desperately for Yuto’s presence, but the guy was staying characteristically quiet. _“Guess I’m on my own.”_ Yuya snapped out of his head and tried to think up a fairly believable lie. He hesitated too long, denying the fact was going to bring too much suspicion. Better to just downplay the whole deal.

                ‘Yeah, sometimes. I don’t know what makes it happen though.” Yuya tried to not fidget, he was uncomfortable talking about this stuff.

                “That’s strange… While I have not ever had that experience happen to me, I have had blackouts before…” Yuri clicked his tongue as the gears in his head turned for a connection.

                “Blackouts?” Yugo asked, still slightly woozy from the emotional rush.

                “Well, they only started recently, but sometimes there are just blank spots in my memory. For instance, I cannot remember the duel between you and I to capture Serena.” Yuri looked at Yugo and Yuya, who were nodding in agreement.

                “Actually… I can’t remember that duel either. We started it, but then it kinda blanked out for me…” Yugo said, crossing his arms.

                “I- I can’t quite remember it either, but I kinda know what happens then. Umm… Yugo, do you remember your last duel with Yuto?” Yuya started cautiously. He hoped mentioning the other boy’s name would get his attention, but Yuto lurked in some corner of Yuya’s mind that he couldn’t reach.

                “I guess. I blacked out during that one too, and when I woke up, there was this really bright light. Then I was back home in Synchro.” Yugo looked intently towards Yuya, who was squirming. Yuya wasn’t sure how much information he should share, they were obviously being watched, but he still felt like he should explain Berserk to these guys.

                “Well… when we black out like that, I’m not sure why, but we start acting… different.” Here goes nothing. ‘When you blacked out, Yuto did too. You both started talking about destruction, razing everything to the ground, and really weird stuff like that. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. By time I managed to snap Yuto out of it, you were already attacking. Yuto took the blast to save me, and then he disappeared.” Not completely a lie, though Yuya’s hands were still twitching. Yuri looked intrigued, while Yugo appeared incredulous.

                “I killed him?!” Yugo yelled. Yuya flinched, he wanted to tell the truth, but Yuto’s words were ringing in the back of his head, so he just took a deep breath and prepared himself.

                “Y-yeah.” Yuya looked away, he didn’t want to see the look on Yugo’s face, but Yuri decided to interrupt. Yugo was in shock; he didn’t expect that of all things to be what happened during his blackouts.

                “Did you see the other times I dueled? What happened then? Did anyone else get hurt?” He asked the questions in a rapid fire manner, but Yuri interrupted.

                ‘Yugo, Yuya wasn’t there to witness your other duels. The only other blackouts you’ve mentioned are in duels with me, which I cannot remember either.” Yuri crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Yugo, his face full of its natural condescension. “Though I suppose you wouldn’t be able to deduce that on your own, would you?”

                “Damn pretentious asshole…” Yugo muttered. Yuya had half a mind to correct Yuri, but he just decided to thank God for the exit of the conversation.

                “At least you can’t hate me in good conscious now.” Yuri said, rather smugly.

                “What the hell do you mean?” Yugo asked, his voice on the edge of a dangerous tone. Yuri wasn’t fazed.

                “Well you’d be quite the hypocrite to hate me for being a murderer now.”

                Yuya didn’t like to curse; he felt unnerved by Yugo’s constant obscenities. That being said, the first words out of his mouth after Yuri’s comment was “Oh shit.”

                Time seemed to go in slow motion. Yugo wasted no time jumping from his bed to tackle the other boy. Yuri tried to dodge, but the small space of the cell didn’t allow for enough movement, and Yugo managed to pin him. Yugo socked Yuri as hard as he could. He drew back his hand, the sharp plastic on his knuckles drawing blood. Yuri tried to squirm from under Yugo, but he was pinned to his bed. Yugo relentlessly punched Yuri, one after the other. Eventually, he grew tired and hesitated for just a moment.  Yuri took the opportunity to forcibly push Yugo off of him.

                His bad leg whined from the sudden pressure put on it, so Yugo was dazed for a moment. Yuri tried to get to the corner of the room from his bed, but Yugo had regained his bearings and grabbed Yuri’s coattails, shoving the two right next each other. Yuri could feel the heat of Yugo’s breath as he bared his teeth, hot fury burning in his ice blue eyes. Yugo brought his knee up, squarely forcing it into Yuri’s gut.

                ‘ARGH!” He cried out in pain, and fell to the ground. Yugo kicked him in the back as he tried to crawl away, but Yugo stepped on the red coat of his back, hard. It hurt to breath, blood caked Yuri’s left eye, and he could only let out garbled screams of pain. Yugo began to approach him as he readied another kick, but was stopped when Yuya jumped from his bed, standing in between the two.

                “YUGO! Stop this right now! Fighting isn’t going to solve anything!” Yuya stuck his arms out to the side, blocking Yugo from walking any further. Yuri whimpered in the background, still wheezing in pain.

                “Yeah, it’s going to solve our problem. HIM!” Yugo spat, taking a step forward, but Yuya wouldn’t budge.

                “No, it’s going to get us in trouble, and get you two angry! There’s a better way to solve this than violence!” Yuya tried to reason with Yugo, but his pleas fell on stubbornly deaf ears.

                “Look Yuya. You might believe this passive bullshit, but I grew up in a city where I had to either get my ass beat, or protect my pride. No one learns anything through talking. This little shit wasn’t changed by your fucking friendship speech, so I’m going to take the more direct approach!” Yugo again tried to get past Yuya, but the boy wouldn’t budge.

                “Please, listen to me, I know-“ The door banged open, three Obelisk students all rushing into the cell. The three boys only had a second to recognize the new entries before agonizing pain seized all three of them as electricity coursed through their bodies. Yuya and Yugo fell, pulling desperately at the collars while screaming. For a few moments, the pain felt like it wouldn’t end, and Yuya felt the anger burning at the back of his mind push against his mental defenses, trying to take over. Yuya tried pushing back, containing his anger, but the burning pain was getting too much. The electrcity was burning in his chest and head, and he could feel his control slipping away. Yuya prepared for the blackout. Then, the burning stopped.

                They were only being electrocuted for a few seconds, but the agony could’ve been for hours. Yuri was rendered completely immobile, while Yugo was a panting mess, trying to stand. Yuya squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to force his anger down, force that thing away. It was much easier without the burning pain, but it still was difficult to fight off the culmination of his and Yuto’s anger in a single being.

                “You all are coming with us, now!” The leader of the Obelisks glared pointedly at them, and the three boys attempted to get up, to failure.

                “NOW!” The man behind the leader barked, and Yugo finally managed to support himself on a bed, half-standing. Yuya tried to support himself, but his legs were wobbly and the adrenaline pumping through his system made his ears ring. Yuri wasn’t unconscious, but he could only barely roll himself onto his stomach as he tried to push himself up with his arms to no avail. Yuya was breathing hard, but he managed to gather enough strength to push himself up. He almost fell, and he quickly grabbed the bedpost, but his legs were slowing getting more stable.

                “Y- *huff* Yuri can’t- *huff* stand…” Yuya managed to pant out between breaths. He gritted his teeth as he prepared for a second electrical shock, but two of the Obelisks instead walked over to the shaking form of the Slifer and draped him over their shoulders.

                “Come on. Or you’ll get another shock.” Yuya and Yugo tried to follow the students as best they could; their muscles were seizing and locking from the pain. They managed a sort of awkward hobble that kept pace with their captors. Yuri’s face was bloodied and bruised, and Yuya winced as he saw the gashes in Yuri’s cheeks from Yugo’s knuckles. After a couple minutes, they arrived at the same room Yuya had been taken to before. Inside, Leo Akaba and some people in lab coats stood.

                “Tsk tsk tsk.” Leo Akaba clicked his tongue while shaking his head as he approached the boys. ‘You should know better than to get into fights. This is going to take some serious punishment.”  Yugo’s eyes widened at the word ‘punishment’, but he remained silent.

                “Please take Prisoner BG-3 and perform the demonstration for these boys.” One of the girls in the white lab coats nodded, and she pressed a button. Suddenly, a metal shade over a window lifted, metal creaking as it revealed a clear view of a girl on the floor. She had short green hair, and her eyes were golden, round and scared.

                “RIN!” Yugo dashed over to the window, but she made no move to indicate she heard him. Instead, Rin kept looking around, fear gracing her round eyes.

                “It’s a one-way window. She cannot see or hear you. Please continue the demonstration.” The professor nodded to the girl next the control panel, and she pressed a button located near the top of the dashboard. Suddenly, Rin started screaming. It was soundless, but everyone could see her face contort in pain as she grasped her neck. Her eyes were wide, and she pulled her jacket collar, practically ripping it. Beneath the collar of her blue jacket, Yugo could see a gleam of metal.

                ‘STOP IT!” Yugo whipped around and yelled at Leo Akaba, who made no motion, but let the corners of his mouth turn upward into a sick grin as Rin writhed in pain.

                 "Please turn up the voltage."

                  Yugo turned in terror as the girl next the control board fiddled wit a dial, and Rin's screaming form fell all the way to the ground as she tried to force the metal collar off to no avail. Yuya was horrified as he watched this girl, who looked exactly like Yuzu, scream and roll as she clutched helplessly at her neck. Yugo began banging on the window, screaming her name.

                “You know, these are a special kind of collar.” Leo Akaba began, his voice sounding sadistically happy in a manner similar to Yuri. “Not only do they emit electrical shocks, but they constrict airways. Poor little Rin can’t even breathe right now.” Yuya nearly choked as he felt sickening bile rise to the back of his throat. He tried to tear his eyes away, but they were transfixed on the horrific scene in front of him.

                “Please, stop!” Yugo was crying now, still banging uselessly against the window as he tried to reach Rin, but she still was clutching at her neck, trying to remove the tightened collar while it sent wave after wave of voltage through her. After a moment, Yugo sank to his knees, sobbing as he watched Rin be tortured. Leo Akaba’s grin stuck, and he looked triumphant as Yugo loudly sobbed by the window.

                “You may turn off the device.” The girl near the control panel quickly flipped a series of switches and pushed a button, and Rin finally stopped grasping at her neck as she fell to the ground. She had lost all consciousness, and Yugo watched her twitch from electrical aftershocks with tears still in his eyes. Yuya was frozen, he had no idea what to do but watch in horror. The girl near the control panel flipped a switch, and the metal plates that previously covered the window began to click into place, obscuring Rin from view.

                “Now Yugo, do you see why fighting is wrong?” The Professor asked a condescending tone. Yugo didn’t respond, he stared dejectedly at the ground while tears stained his cheeks. After a few seconds the Professor turned to Yuya.

                “And I hope you learned this lesson too, Yuya. You two seemed unaffected by the shocks we gave you, so we had to resort to harsher punishments.” His tone was mockingly apologetic, but none of the boys dared make any move to anger Leo.

                “Ms. Cerulean?”

                “Uh, yes sir!” A tiny girl with blue hair, in fact the same that had popped Yuya’s dislocated shoulder, came forward. She looked terrified as the Professor addressed her.

                “Please attend to Yuri’s wounds. Send Yugo back to cell D-26. I think now is as good as time as any to deal with Mr. Sakaki.”

                “W-what?” Yuya asked, voice wavering with fear. Yugo was thrust out of the room, two of the three Obelisks that had brought them their escorting him out. He didn’t even put up a fight, his hair covering his expression as he was ushered out. Yuri was carried into a separate room, hauled over the shoulder of the remaining Obelisk member, behind another door that shut itself automatically behind the man who was carrying him, while the girl with the blue hair scurried out of the room to follow.

                “Well, Mr. Sakaki, it’s time for us to play.” Yuya felt a chill down his neck as he faced Leo Akaba, who had a malicious smile adorning his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I did this right... This chapter was very difficult to write, for the obvious reasons. I've had it in my back pocket for about two weeks now and I have been praying it got its point across. Either way, this is where I finally justify my T rating. Yay.


	7. Guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: I would like to have a beta reader to help iron out some of the crinkles in my chapters. My only constraint is that you can send the chapter back to me before the next update, which at the very least will give you 24 hours to read and edit the chapter, usually more.

                “Well, before we start, I’d like to ask you some questions, Mr. Sakaki.” The Professor paced over to the computer, looking at some numbers on the screen Yuya couldn’t make out. Yuya was terrified, he just watched this man nonchalantly torture a girl to make a point. He had to watch what he said, he couldn’t risk having that happen again. He felt Yuto’s wave of panic cross his mind as he remembered Ruri was here too, and Yuya swallowed as he tried to focus on the Professor and his questions.

                “What do you know about the whereabouts of Yuto Iwasaki?” Off to a great start. Yuya bit the inside of his cheek as he tensed up, frantically searching his mind for a lie.

                “Don’t be shy, Mr. Sakaki, I assure you we’ll know if you’re lying.” Yuya stiffened, and he saw a video clip of his duel against Yuto with Sora in Standard behind the Professor. He cursed mentally, and he grimaced as the Professor turned to face him, obscuring the video from view.

                “Well… I’m not entirely sure what happened to Yuto… He kinda disappeared after his duel with Yugo, right?” Yuya tried to ask questions to throw off the professor, but the man didn’t miss a beat.

                “Now Yuya, I’m sure you would know, you were there after all. People don’t just disappear into thin air, now do they?” His tone was patronizing, but the glare he sent Yuya made the threat very clear. Yuya gulped; he had to start talking.

                “Well… Yuto took an attack for me, and he died. Just before he did, he gave his Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon. After that I passed out, I can’t remember anything past that.” Yuya was extremely shaken from the ‘demonstration’ on Rin, and he found extremely hard to think straight. The Professor’s intimidating expression and stature did not help matters any.

                “Well Yuya, it’s my belief you aren’t telling me everything. But I can see how you don’t quite understand my meaning. Perhaps if I perform another demonstration, you would understand?”

                “NO!” Yuya felt a flash of terror, he couldn’t bear to see anyone else in that horror show. Her desperate eyes as she tried to find the source of her pain, her kicking desperately at nothing, the scene was awful. He took a shaky breath, and then spilled everything.

                ‘I- I think Yuto’s body died, but his soul stayed with his Dark Rebellion card.” Well, that cat is out of the bag. The Professor didn’t look the least bit surprised, which made Yuya wonder how much this guy really knew.

                “So you have his soul with you?” Tough question. Yuya didn’t know if he could honestly look at this man who just nearly killed an innocent girl with an honest to god grin on his face and lie to him. Yuya prepared for the many apologies he would have to give to Yuto later.

                ‘Y-yes.” The Professor nodded, seemingly satisfied by this answer. He turned to the computer, looking away from Yuya once more.

                “Thank you for your honesty, Yuya. You learn quickly. Ms. Rose, please perform the procedure, I have everything I need for the analysis.” Yuya took a step back as the girl with the bored expression snapped to attention, grabbing Yuya’s wrist and leading him over to what looked like an operating table. Yuya felt a cold pit of fear as he looked at medical instruments littered around the table.

                “Please lay down.” Any teenage whininess this girl once carried melted into a strict monotone in front of Leo Akaba. Yuya obliged, and once again felt electrodes get attached to various parts of his body. The girl didn’t work as quickly as the other two scientists, which made Yuya feel very uncomfortable as she pulled his shirt over his head to attach the nodes to his abdomen and chest. When she finally finished, Yuya saw her bring a large device that honestly looked like some kind of bear trap. There weren’t any teeth, but silicon plates formed the skeleton of a semicircle, while circuitry lined the inside of the device. The girl walked up next  to Yuya’s head, and then removed his goggles and set them on the table with the medical instruments. Yuya thought about protesting for only a moment before once glance at Leo Akaba shut down any chances of a refute.  The girl fitted the device around his head, a large portion in the front covering his eyes. He was basically blindfolded, everything was dark. As he felt the girl tighten a strap around the back of his head, he heard the click of heels while the Professor walked towards him.

                “Begin, Ms. Rose.” Suddenly, a bright light shone directly into Yuya’s eyes, and he was forced to shut them. The light still streamed in through his eyelids, and he saw a vague haze of orange. The light clicked off after a second, and he heard the computer begin to whir and click as if strain was being put on it. Nothing hurt, thought his head kind of tingled. After a few seconds of buzzing from the machine, the bright light was shone directly into his eyes again. He winced, the light’s brightness hurt, and he could only shut it out so much by closing his eyes. He was glad he wasn’t being put to sleep or tortured, but he hated not being able to see.

                This carried on for hours. Yuya started to get a headache from the repeated bright light in his eyes. The buzzing in his head was constant, and did not help the headache any. The computer’s noises were his only other stimuli, though he did hear the faint sound of footsteps every once in a while, and sometimes he even heard the typing on a keyboard, but that was rare.  The bright light kept flashing, and Yuya gritted his teeth. He just wanted to stop and go back to his cell at this point, it was less tedious and annoying than this. All of a sudden, Yuya felt the strange buzzing in his head grow warm. It was like someone had turned the heat on in the oven, it grew warmer and warmer every second. Then, it began to hurt.

                “Professor, there’s been a spike in the prefrontal cortex area, we can’t continue!” The voices began to fade as the ringing in Yuya’s ears became louder.

                “Do not halt the procedure.”

                “But sir, there can be major-“ Yuya couldn’t make out what they said now, his head was pounding far too much/

                His headache had been a passive one up until now, but the burning sensation in his head made a migraine effect. His head screamed, and Yuya let out a cry of pain. He could vaguely hear footsteps running towards him, but he felt the burning in his head get hotter. The light flashed again, and his headache spiked into a sharp pain, constant and unyielding. The darkness was there again with the pain, mixing around in his head. Yuya didn’t even try to fight it, the agony in his head was too much to bear. The anger always boiling in the back of his head exploded and covered everything in a red haze, and Yuya felt any semblance of control he had stripped away into pain.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                Yugo felt the headache like a strong punch to the gut. It was sudden, and it was painful. He had been recovering from **_that_** experience by staring at the wall in bed and crying. He eventually got tired after an hour, and he waited for Yuya or Yuri to come back. Neither one did. He knew that Yuri was beat up bad enough to probably need stitches for the gashes, but he was really worried about Yuya. The guy had done nothing wrong, hell, he was the one that broke up the fight. Yet Yugo was sent back to the cell, while Yuya was kept with that monster. Yugo prayed that Yuya wasn’t going to be some tool for demonstration later. He already felt so terrible about Rin, he couldn’t be the cause of someone else’s’ suffering. Still, all of his brooding was nothing when the shock of the pain came.

                He felt flashes of memories cross his mind. A man in a top hat smiling while he rode around a duel arena on a monster, the World Duel Carnival in Heartland, memories hit Yugo rapidly with no pause while his pounding skull released another wave of pain. His feelings of grief and anger were mixed with sudden shots of happiness, but then were replaced by depressing sadness. The discovery of Pendulum summoning, his duel against…himself? Emotions were whipped in a whirlwind as memory after memory made their rounds through his brain, all accompanied by the sharp pains of a migraine.

                Yugo clutched his head and tried to force the thoughts away, but they wouldn’t stop coming. One after the other with no pause in between. Yugo tried to breath, get his bearings, do anything to return to his own mind, but he was stuck in this place, forced to watch the lives he never lived. Playing Duel Monsters with Rin, no, Ruri? Getting hit by her paper fan, or was that someone else’s’?

                Then, it stopped. It was as if someone had turned off the T.V. The memories stopped, but the migraine still remained, and Yugo became painfully aware of a fire burning in his chest. He knew this feeling from somewhere, but he couldn’t quite place it. Either way, he felt immense pain from his chest and head, and he tried to force pressure onto both afflicted areas. It felt like an eternity that his was in this position, desperately praying for some way to escape the pain, but then he felt a new sensation enter with the others. It was cold, like someone had injected ice into his veins. It started at his chest and worked its way through his body to the edges of his fingers and toes, like it was coursing with his blood. The cold was comforting, it dulled the ache of the migraine, and the fire burning in his chest slowly began to die down. It took about five minutes for the feeling of coolness to wash over him and completely take away the pain. Yugo let out a shaky breath as his bearings finally returned to him, and he could blink open his eyes to see the white cell he was in.

                “What the fuck was that?” He asked the empty silence. He supposed he should be glad it didn’t respond, but he didn’t realize how much he missed the company of others. Hell, he would even take Yuri at this point if it meant he didn’t have to be alone with his thoughts anymore. Now he just had what was probably a seizure and he couldn’t do anything about it. The emotional and physical pain lingered slightly from that, but he mostly just felt a loneliness that he couldn’t fill. It had existed ever since he lost Rin, but now that he had witnessed Rin’s torture… he was longing for just about anyone’s company. The grief and sorrow he was feeling before he had been hit with the sudden rush of memories began to return to Yugo.

                “Damnit...” Yugo felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. Everything was screwed up. He got Rin tortured, Yuya in whatever trouble he was in now, and it was all his fault. If he had just learned to keep his damn mouth shut…. Yugo wept. Suddenly, the door to the cell slammed open. Yuri was being hauled in, slung over the shoulders of a rather buff Obelisk student. The guy let his shoulder drop, and Yuri slid to the floor. It was obvious he was unconscious. Yugo climbed down his bed, keeping his eye on the Obelisk student, who hesitated as he made eye contact with the boy with the yellow bangs before he turned and slammed the door behind him. Yugo tore his eyes away from the door to check Yuri’s pulse, which was fine. Yugo looked over Yuri’s face to check out the damage, which was pretty bad. As predicted, there were stiches for the deep gashes right under Yuri’s eyes, and thin filmy liquid over the bruises, each with puncture points. The gel substance was probably some kind of disinfectant, or perhaps an anesthetic?

                “Looks just like Yuya’s bruises after he came back…” Yugo trailed off as he saw a bandage peeping out from underneath Yuri’s purple coat. Yugo felt incredibly embarrassed as he unzipped Yuri’s coat, and then proceed to pull his black undershirt up to see Yuri’s entire abdomen was covered with bandages, rolled around him and stapled to keep firm. Yugo winced as his saw the bruises peeking out from Yuri’s chest where Yugo had kicked him, also covered in the same liquid that was on Yuri’s face. Yugo quickly pulled Yuri’s shirt back down and zipped his coat back up. He ignored his bad leg as he put on arm under Yuri’s knees, and the other under Yuri’s back as he pulled the boy up. He was surprisingly light. Yugo placed him down on the bed under Yuya’s, and returned to his own bed, glancing once at the sleeping figure of Yuri before swinging up to his bed.

                Yuri slept well, though Yugo noticed his soft snores were back, and once again they were like the little mewls of a kitten. Yugo actually found the presence of another human being, even if it was Yuri, comforting. He didn’t watch Yuri sleep or anything, that would be creepy, but he did check up on the guy every so often to see if he was waking up. The answer was no every time, but Yugo couldn’t follow Yuri into the sweet embrace of sleep. He wasn’t tired, his mind was racing, and his bruises, though dull, still ached. Yugo wished Yuya was here, he didn’t have a reason to hate him.

                Yugo stared at the ceiling for a while, before moving his line of sight to the wall. Back to the ceiling, and now to the wall. Quick glance at Yuri, then the ceiling again. Yugo had an itch to move, to do something, he was getting claustrophobic in this tiny cell. He loved riding duels for the speed and freedom, and now he was forced to stay cooped up in this little white room with no way to move. Yugo groaned, he was tired of being powerless and moping, but he couldn’t be anything else so long as he was in here with a shock collar around his neck.

Yugo felt the strong urge to punch something all of a sudden, just exert some force on something to feel like he had power again. His eyes innocuously drifted over to Yuri, but one look at the bruises and stitches told him that was a bad idea. He instead just cracked his knuckles staring at the white tiles above him as he longed for everything he couldn’t have. His deck, his runner, love, control, power, and Rin. He had to get them back somehow. Even if it meant tearing this place apart, he needed them. Yugo clenched his fist as the pent up anger in him morphed into determination to get everything Academia had stolen from him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. I'm back again. And behind schedule... Anywho, I hope you enjoy the chapter!


	8. Panic

                Yuya was dumped back into the cell a few hours later, completely knocked out. Yuri didn’t wake up for a long while, so Yugo was left alone with his thoughts. He mostly tried to shut them out, as they often drifted to Rin’s screaming form in that tiny room. Every time it crossed his mind, he felt a wave of nausea overtake him and he shut his eyes closed, trying to force away the memories. Yuri’s little kitten snores helped give him some external stimulus to focus on, so he decided just to listen to that for a while and not think. The little snores reminded Yugo of a happy memory back in his dimension. Yugo used to have a cat back in Synchro when he was really young, about five or so. It was a scruffy looking calico that some Top had dumped. Yugo and Rin tried to take care of it for a while, and eventually other kids started to join in. Some of the other orphans would give the food they had, some of the nicer adults even bought the thing a collar. The cat only lasted about a year before it got some disease and had to be put down. Still, it was a fond memory taking care of that cat.               

                Yugo’s mind drifted from his cat thoughts when he suddenly heard silence. Yuri’s snores had stopped, so Yugo peeked over the edge of the bed to see the other boy beginning to stretch his arms and wake up. Yugo felt happy for a moment, he finally wasn’t alone, before forcing himself to remember that he hated Yuri. As Yuri turned over to face away from the wall, Yugo caught sight of the darkly colored bruises on his face and exposed skin. Yugo flinched, he knew he went way too far. Even if that guy was a bastard, he probably didn’t deserve that… Yugo felt even more regret on top of the feelings for his actions punishing Rin. He was really a screw up.

                “Yugo?” Yuri had seen him moving, while Yuya lay completely unmoving in his bed. Yugo really wanted a conversation, he was alone for hours, so he decided his hatred for the fusion bastard was less than his desire for companionship.

                “I’m here.” Yugo wished Yuya had woken up first, cause’ Yuri was just a huge visual reminder of how much he fucked up.

                “Oh.” The sound was really small, almost like a squeak coming from Yuri. It wasn’t disappointed, but broken. If Yuri had mentally scarred before he was beat to hell and back, now he was scared of his maniac cellmate who nearly killed him. Nice going, Yugo. Yugo didn’t know how to deal with the pity he was feeling for Yuri, but he needed someone else’s’ company. His own mind was hell to be in at the moment.

                “I- Are you okay?” Yugo regretted the question as soon as it came out of his mouth. The answer was very obviously no, but Yugo honestly had no idea how to talk to Yuri.

                “It hurts.” Yuri said, his voice still very small. Yugo forced himself to not look away in shame as Yuri brought a shaking hand to the of the stiches underneath his eyes. He only briefly brushed his fingers over the wound before wincing and quickly drawing his hand away.

                “Yeah… So did they do anything to you other than patch you up?” Yugo was extremely uncomfortable, and he was now rethinking his priorities for talking to someone else if this was the conversation he had to have.

                “I- I can’t remember. They were keeping me awake to make sure I didn’t fall into a coma, they just numbed everything so I couldn’t feel it. But then… something strange happened. I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt this headache coming on very strongly. Then, I was hit by these memories. Memories that… weren’t mine.” Yuri sounded hesitant, unsure if he should even tell Yugo something like that. Yugo’s heart stopped for a second. Yuri felt that too? What was going on here?

                “Then the memories stopped, but there was this really painful burning sensation. I blacked out after that, I think they sedated me.” Yuri moved his teeth to bite his lip, but flinched as he felt another wound right below his mouth.

                “I felt it too.” Yugo was dead serious, gritting his teeth as Yuri’s expression shifted into one of complete shock. What was going on here?

                “What? But how can that be? If you felt it, then did Yuya…?” Yuri and Yugo both looked at the sleeping form of the other boy, their minds racing. What was happening to them? Did Yuya cause that weird mind meld thing? Yugo decided not to wait any longer for answers. He jumped off of his bed, grunting as he exerted a little too much force on his bad leg. He put his hands on Yuya’s shoulders and started shaking the other boy, violently.

                “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Yuri yelled from the other end of the cell, running over to Yugo. Yugo continued to shake Yuya, who wasn’t responding. Yuri managed to pull Yugo away from Yuya, who was twitching and shifting now, getting closer to waking up.

                “You idiot!” Yuri growled. “Do you have no sense at all? Seriously, for once in your miserable life, THINK!” Yuri yelled at Yugo, prepared for a grand chewing out. Luckily for him, Yuya’s awakening halted Yuri’s accusations.

                “Where am I?” He blinked the drowsiness out of his eyes and turned his head to look at Yugo and Yuri, who both were at each other’s throats. “Yugo, Yuri? What happened while I was out? Don’t tell me you two are fighting again!” Yuya took another look at Yuri and flinched as he saw the stitches and bruises lining the poor boy’s face. Yugo really did a number on him. He noticed that the blood wasn’t on Yuri’s clothes, they must have replaced them or something.

                “I apologize, Yuya, for this idiot’s behavior. He was responsible for your rude awakening.” Yuri pushed Yugo away from him and walked calmly back to his bed. Yugo jerked away from Yuri and swung up onto the bed above Yuri so he could face Yuya.

                “Uh, thank you?” Yuya wasn’t sure if he should take an apology that passive aggressive, but he wasn’t sure how to properly deny it. “So seriously, what happened while I was out? I can remember some things, but it’s kind of a blur…” Yuya trailed off, trying to gather his thoughts together.

                “What do you last remember?” Yuri asked, hesitantly. He did not want to have to explain the Rin experience to Yuya. Especially while Yugo was in the room.

                “I… I think after that thing with Rin happened, they took you two away. And then the Professor asked me-“ Yuya paused for a moment as realization dawned on his face. “AGH!” Yuya punched the wall next to him in frustration as he remembered the conversation with the Professor. He told the enemy, the one person he wasn’t supposed to tell, about his secret. Yugo and Yuri watched with concern.

                “Yuya, what happened?” Yugo’s voice was full of caution, he almost sounded like he didn’t want the answer. Yuya closed his eyes and hesitated before giving his answer.

 

                “The Professor interrogated me after you guys left. He threatened to do another “demonstration”, so I told him everything. Damn…” Yuya uttered a low curse as he felt Yuto coming to the forefront of his mind, feeling regret very similar to Yuya’s.

                “Told him everything? What did he want to know? The Professor can’t possibly want something from you. No offense Yuya, but the Professor is smarter than you give him credit for. What could he want from you that he doesn’t already have?” Yuri’s voice was full of skepticism, the Professor knew everything, he had so many spies and infiltration efforts that there was no possible way he couldn’t know everything.

                “He… he wanted to know about Yuto.” Yuri perked up at this, it was a question that had crossed his mind. If there were versions of him from Standard and Synchro, there had to be one from XYZ. For a long time, Yuri had just assumed he had been carded since he never showed up. Then Yuya said that he had died, so he thought the case was closed.

                “And what of it? I’d assume he already knew, you did say what happened yourself, and I’m sure they’re monitoring us.” Yuri questioned.

                “Well, I lied to you two. Yuto didn’t die, or at least like I said he did.” Now Yugo looked surprised, he cocked his head and watched Yuya, eyes’ burning with questions.

                _“Yuya… Be careful.”_ The warning was heard loud and clear, and Yuya just nodded in acknowledgement to Yuto’s warning before explaining.

                “Well, Yuto did take an attack from Yuto to protect me, but he didn’t exactly die.” Yuya tried to look at Yugo and Yuri, though the urge to look away caused him to seem nervous and jumpy. Yugo almost looked… hopeful at the mention that Yuto wasn’t dead. Yuri looked bewildered at this information, though he waited for Yuya to elaborate.

                “When the attack landed, there was this bright flash of light, and Yuto was dying in my arms.” Yuya started. “He gave me his Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon. When he did, I passed out. And when I came to, his soul was with me somehow.” Yuya decided to leave out the whole part leading up to the realization of Yuto’s soul, it wasn’t important, and he didn’t want the Professor to get more information or a reason to be mad at him.

                “So all four of us are here then.”

Yuri’s comment was a bit disjointed from the conversation, so Yuya asked in confusion, “What?”

                “Well, every version of ourselves that exists across this multiverse are all in one place. XYZ, Synchro, Fusion, and Standard. So if they have us all gathered here, what do they want with us? We’ve all experienced the strange memory connection at one point.” Yuri explained.

                Yuya felt a chill down his back as his jumbled memories finally picked the last one before unconsciousness. Yuri’s mind meld comment sparked it, and his eyes went wide as he remembered the incident. It was painful, but becoming possessed always was. The more frightening thought was that he entered Berserk in front of Leo Akaba. He had no idea how they subdued it, granted he was already tied down, but the fact remained all the same. Yuya no longer had any secrets from the Professor. As Yuto felt Yuya’s realization, another wave of dread hit Yuya from his other soul.

                “Anyone else feeling really weird? Like something really bad is gonna happen?” Yugo asked, suddenly looking a bit pale. His skin suddenly prickled and his hair was standing on end. Yuri seemed uncomfortable as well.

                “Yes, it’s the strangest feeling… Do you feel it Yuya?” Yuri asked.

                Yuya felt the pit of dread in his stomach grow even deeper. Were Yugo and Yuri… syncing up to his emotions? He was used to feeling Yuto’s emotions, but they shared a mind. This was bad. Yuya was already trying to wrap his head why these guys looked like him, but now they were sharing emotions and memories. Yuya tried to force them out of his mind, keep his own thoughts, but he didn’t even feel Yugo or Yuri’s consciousness.  They were in his head and he didn’t even feel it.

                “I think that’s actually coming from me.” Yuya said, his voice becoming unstable and shaky. Yuri’s eye widened in surprise while Yugo recoiled at the information. “I don’t know how, but you guys are feeling what I’m feeling.”

                “W-What? What the hell is going on here?” Yugo practically shouted, and now Yuya felt a mix of fear and anger coming from seemingly nowhere. Great, so this mind link wasn’t one way.

                “It seems the more time we spend together, the more of a mental bond forms between us. The memory flashes Yugo and I experienced earlier today were probably caused by you, as it seems unlikely those memories were either of ours. I suppose I’m glad neither of you two invaded my memories.” Even though Yuri was trying to stay calm and analytical, the growing fear in his chest was expanding.  All three boys felt panic, though they didn’t know if it was their own or from the others. That just made each of them feel more anxious.

                “Damn, can you guys stop that? I’m getting sick here.” Yugo’s breaths were starting to come in shallow, and the panic in Yuri and Yuya’s chest flared as they felt the same shallowness in their own breathing.

Suddenly, breathing became very hard, the feeling in their chests tightened. Yugo almost felt like someone was strangling him, and Rin flashed through his mind once again. Soon, Yuya was pretty sure he was bordering on panic attack territory.

                _“Yuya, this is bad. We need to pull out of their heads and isolate ourselves somehow.”_ Yuto’s voice was steady, but urgent. Yuya tried to calm his shallow breathing, but taking on the emotions of four people made focusing really difficult. Flashes of Rin started to appear behind his closed eyes, and he desperately tried to force a mental wall against those memories. Yuya really felt like he couldn’t breathe now, he had to grip the bedpost to stay upright.

                Yuya tried to focus on his own thoughts, push away the agonizing fear in his chest. Like the mental wall he erected to block out the darkness at the back of his mind, he tried to push against Yuri and Yugo’s feelings, get back in his own head completely. Well, his and Yuto’s. It worked, if only barely, but the amount of mental concentration it took just to force the other guys out of his head was not a good sign. Slowly, the tight feeling in his chest began to release, and his throat no longer felt the squeezing pressure it had before.

                “I think… I think it’s getting better now. I suppose it’s good that isn’t a permanent thing.” Yuri’s palms were sweaty, and he was hanging on to his bedpost for support, but his breathing was slowly steadying.

                “So again, what the HELL was that?” Yugo’s breaths were coming in short as well, though he seemed to be taking the panic attack slightly better than Yuri. He didn’t need to support himself at the very least.

                “This syncing minds things has got to do with the reason Academia wants us here.” Yuya said, attempting to calm his nerves to varying degrees of success.

                “That would make sense, their goal is to unite the dimensions into one. However, I can’t imagine why they’d want us of all people to be the ones to fuse. At first I believed those girls, the ones that look like Serena, were the target, but it seems they’re still separate entities based on what we saw of….what’s her name again? Ah yes, Rin.” Yuri’s breathing was still shallow, though he noticeably tensed up at the same time as Yugo as he mentioned of Rin.

                _“Yuya, are you okay?”_ Yuto was fairly calm considering what just happening, though Yuya could feel Yuto fighting off his own panic, though Yuya was fairly sure most of the emotions were coming from his end.

                “Not really.” Yuya managed to breath out, Wait, did he say that out loud?

                “What?” Yugo looked at Yuya, confused. “What are you talking about? Her name is Rin.” Yuri also looked at Yuya with a confused expression. Yuya mentally cursed himself.

                “So… about the whole Yuto’s soul being with me. He can talk to me.” Yuya tried to explain. “That’s why I space out so much.”

                “So you’ve been talking to him all that time.” Yuri noted. Yuri narrowed his eyes as he studied Yuya, making the other boy very uncomfortable.

                “Has he-“ Yuri started to ask a question, but then bit his lip and stopped mid-sentence. He was really going to be as idiotic as to ask about an XYZ user’s feelings towards him. This place must be screwing with his head. “Never mind.” Yuri swung his legs onto his bed, and his face contorted in pain slightly as his hand rushed to his hip.

                “You okay?” Yuya and Yuri’s mouths hung open in astonishment as Yugo spoke up. Yuya was just amazed the guy bothered showing any sympathy towards Yuri, but Yuri was even more confused as Yugo actually seemed to be… genuine? Yugo quickly turned red as the two other boys stared at him.

                “N-Nevermind. Forget what I said, I’m going to sleep. Fuck off.” Yugo stuttered and pushed back on his bed and turned to face the wall, hiding his face from the other two. Yuya turned to Yuri to say something, but only saw a flash of a smile before the other boy turned away from Yuya.

                “Guess I’ll go to sleep too.” Yuya announced, smiling himself as he took one more glance at the other two boys. They finally weren’t at each other’s throats. True, they were far from being friends, but Yuya was going to take what he could get. If someone like Yuri was able to change his mind, and someone like Yugo could forgive him…

                _“Perhaps you can do this after all.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am insanely behind schedule on this story. I might go to once a week uploads so I can catch up. I'm not sure I like how this chapter came out, but I'll see your thoughts in the comments below. Have a good one.


	9. The Calm Before the Storm

“Professor. This doesn’t bode well. Yuya’s reaction to the memory reader was far too violent, he could’ve seriously damaged equipment, and most of the readings were destroyed when he… you know.” The girl stood at attention, muscles tight as she tried to keep face in front of Leo Akaba. She tentatively handed him a chart with tons of little notes scribbled everywhere, but a huge spike at the very end was covered in messy handwriting and documentation. He pushed them aside on his desk, reading a separate piece of paper intently. It seemed to be a letter of some kind from the forces in the other dimensions.

                “If he destroys equipment, it can be replaced, Viridian.” The Professor sounded bored with her report, and she gulped.

                “Well, you see, uh,” She started swearing nervously, “We cannot continue with the memory scanner. Because of the injury in his brain… the machine will always produce this reaction should we try to go forward with the scan.” At this, the Professor looked up from his paperwork, pushing it to the side.

                “That’s news of interest. So you’re saying he will have this reaction every time?” The Professor’s eyes focused on the girl, and she shrank back in fear before forcing her knees to straighten and nodding vigorously, trying to push through her fear.

                “Yes sir. Should we attempt to elicit that reaction too many times however… It’s likely the damage would be permanent. I’m not sure we can push him like that if we need him to continue… uh, living.” The girl reported, trying not to show fear. The Professor clicked his tongue and ran his finger down the charts Viridian handed him.

                “Hmm… I’m going to need a more direct approach.” He frowned as he squinted at the tiny handwriting near the large spike, trying to make it out.

                “And if it is of interest sir… Yuri Yudoku had a similar reaction. During the medical procedure, he began acting in a manner similar to Yuya Sakaki. We can’t measure mental activity, but his heartrate and temperature rose, almost in time with Yuya’s.” Leo Akaba rubbed his chin thoughtfully, still scrutinizing the chart.

                “Please observe the tapes of Yugo Sokudo during this period. I want you to compare his reaction to the others. Report back your findings. Also, send Grey to fetch their decks and duel disks. Disable the dimensional functions, but keep them nearby.” The Professor laid the chart on his desk, turning to look at Viridian.

                “Yes sir.” She squeaked, her voice almost cracking as she dashed out of the hall.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

                Yugo, Yuri, and Yuya were all sitting on their beds, having a conversation together. The time spent together slowly became more natural with every conversation. Questions became easier to create, as did answers. Yuto still seemed to be a bit of a sore subject, neither Yugo nor Yuri ever brought him up. Yuya was pretty happy, all things considered. He finally got the two to talk with each other, even if it was mostly indirectly. Yuri and Yugo didn’t really make eye contact during conversations, and when they did, they would both huff and immediately look the opposite direction.

                “So I’ve never gotten around to asking before, what’s life like in Standard?” Yugo inquired, sitting cross-legged on his bed.

                “Well, I lived in this place, Miami City, and it was really nice. There wasn’t much special about it. I’d go to school, go to Duel school after that, and hang out with my friends.” Yuya shrugged.

                “Wait, you went to two schools?” Yuri piped up. His face was still badly bruised from the incident the other day, but he was looking better than before.

                “Yeah. There’s school during the day where they teach you boring stuff like algebra and science, and then there are smaller schools where you can apply to learn how to duel. I don’t take any classes though; I usually just hang out with my friends.” Yuya felt a choking feeling in the back of his throat as he thought about Yuzu, but quickly swallowed it down and tried to keep his expression from wavering.

                “That’s really different from what they do in my dimension. There, you only go to school if you’re some rich kid from the tops. Kids like me from Commons get jack shit. If you learn anything, it’s on the streets.” Yugo added.

                “What about you Yuri? What’s school like in Fusion?” Yuya sounded so earnest and curious that Yuri honestly felt obligated to answer the idiot. Yuri took a breath before giving his answer, mentally cursing himself for doing this. True he wanted to gain the trust of Yugo and Yuya, but this subject was a bit too personal for his liking.

                “Well… you’re raised by your biological parent until you turn ten. They ship you off to the Academy, and then you stay and train there. We don’t have separate schools for subjects as in your dimension. We learn everything in the school, dueling or otherwise.” Yuri knew the explanation was standard and boring, but he was not ready to talk about _that_ subject yet. He pushed against the thoughts to keep the fear away.

                “So do you guys go home during the summer or…?” Yuya asked.

                “No. I haven’t seen my family in years. That’s just how it is here.” Yuri never really cared much about his family. You really weren’t supposed to in Fusion. It was an accepted fact that once you turned ten, you’d probably never meet your mother or father again. Brothers and sisters that were close in age sometimes stuck together, but that was rare. Yuri’s own family… he didn’t like to think about it anyhow. Given that his family situation was what it was, Yuri was all too happy to be shipped off the Duel Academy when the time came.

                “You haven’t seen your mom or dad? That’s terrible! Are you allowed to contact them at all?” Yuya sounded so… caring. That was a foreign concept to Yuri. No one ever gave Yuri more than respect at Duel Academy. His roommate, Serena, treated him with a casual disregard, never really initiating conversation. No one ever was concerned for Yuri, and he was okay with that. However, now that someone actually was actually worrying for him, Yuri felt the tiniest spark of gratitude at Yuya’s comment.

                “Well, I am allowed to contact them. I’ve never seen a reason to.”

                “Never seen a reason to? They’re your family! You lived with them at least ten years, don’t you want to know how they’re doing?” Yuya’s protest made Yuri let out at weak chuckle at his naiveté.

                “In my dimension, familial bonds mean close to nothing. And they meant a special kind of nothing to my parents.” Yuri was purposely vague, he still wasn’t quite ready to share his feelings. It was so new feeling things like horror, and he was much more used to it now, but he still was wary and defensive.

                “What happened with your parents?” Yugo spoke up. It was rare to see him even attempt to talk to Yuri, but his curiosity finally got the better of him. Yuri looked away, towards the wall. His weak smile completely melted away as the memories started running through his mind.

                “They… didn’t always get along. And I was a particular favorite subject of discourse.” Yugo and Yuya looked intrigued, with Yuya showing more worry and concern on his face as they tried to get more information out of Yuri. Yuri narrowed his eyes to glare at the wall as one memory ran through his head.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 _“You bitch! I never even wanted a fucking kid and now you want me to-“_ The man was drunkenly slurring, slamming on the table while he yelled.

 _Maybe I didn’t want him either, but that doesn’t mean you get to HIT him!”_ The woman had pink hair, put up in a messy bun. She was screaming at the man, but keeping an arm’s length away to avoid getting hit.

 _“The kid was being fuckin’ annoying. You never get to properly discipline kids these days! If we had the money, I’d fuckin’ send him to the Academy now.”_ Once again, the man took a drink out of his green-brown bottle. Little Yuri rubbed the bruise on his arm.

 _“You want to discipline our son? How bout’ the other day when you caught him drinking some beer? You congratulated the fucking kid!”_ Little Yuri winced, he didn’t want to drink anything, but his father kept complaining about never having a “drinking buddy.” The stuff tasted foul, and Yuri hated how it turned his stomach. His mother screamed at both him and his father when she came home, He shrank into his corner, having nowhere to run with his mother blocking he exit.

 _“Every man drinks it. He’s got enough of a smart-ass mouth to be an adult, he can handle a little booze!”_ Yuri nearly let out a wince, but swallowed the noise as to avoid drawing attention to himself.

 _“God, you’re such a dick!”_ She threw up her hands and turned to walked out of the room, but the man stood up uneasily and grabbed her arm, hard.

 _“What’d you say, bitch?”_ Everything after that was a blur. Screams. Insults. The sound of a breaking bottle. Yuri had been so terrified; he was glued to that spot. He didn’t dare cross his father or mother, because they both would reprimand him if he tried to take any side.

                “Yuri, are you okay?” Damnit, Yuya was too kind for his own good.

                “Yes. Let’s talk about something else.” Yuri’s voice was cold, and that discussion ended there.

                “So who’s that girl you like that looks like Yuzu?” Yuya turned to Yugo, giving Yuri a side glance. Yuri gave a little sigh of relief, the topic had changed.

                “Rin? What do you mean, who is she?” Yugo cocked his head to the side, slightly confused.

                “What’s she like? Personality-wise?” Yuya asked.

                “Well… I never had a mom growing up, so Rin always kind of filled the roll. She would always scold me and tell me to think before I acted. We’ve been living together practically since birth. She’d give me a hard time about everything. I never washed my hair, I always jumped into action without thinking, I always was too quick to judge… Heh. We did everything together.” Yugo for a spilt second looked happy, lost in nostalgia, but reality snapped him away from his brief respite.

                “That’s sounds different from Yuzu. She and I were best friends since we were little, but we were both kinda troublemakers when we were kids.” Yuya laughed a bit. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. If Yuto was close with Ruri and Yugo was best friends with Rin, then did Yuri…?

                “Hey Yuri, do you know Serena?” He snapped his attention the purple-cloaked boy, who was taken aback by the sudden question.

                “Well, we’ve obviously met.” His voice was deadpan as he raised an eye at Yuya.

                “Well, I know that, but I mean before the whole… kidnapping thing.” Tact was not Yuya’s virtue. Yuri noticeably flinched at the word kidnapping, but answered the question anyhow.

                “Well, we were roommates.” Yuya and Yugo both stared in utter shock as Yuri shrugged.

                “But… you’re a dude.” Yugo said rather dumbly.

                “Why thank you for noticing, I wasn’t sure the point had gotten across.” Yuri gave a tired expression as his sarcastic deadpan returned.

                “Fuck you, you know that’s not what I meant! I mean, like, are guys and girls allowed to room together?” Yugo tried to imagine Yuri and Serena being able to share a room, and he just couldn’t imagine it. The matron of the orphanage freaked out whenever he just walked into Rin’s room, he couldn’t fathom living in the same room as her.

                “No.” Yuri’s reply was very simple, and Yugo was starting to get slightly fed up.

                “If you weren’t allowed, then why did you?” Yuya had more patience with Yuri’s antics than Yugo ever would.

                “A series of events happened so no one would willingly room with me. I was going to get my own room due at first, but then Serena transferred into the red dorm at the last minute, and I had the only available open space. I found out later she had snuck in under a man’s name to avoid suspicion, which is how she ended up with me.” Yuri shrugged. It was kind of crazy how he ended up living with Serena, but no one really questioned it.

                “So you knew Serena...” Yuya crossed him arms and furrowed his brow. This couldn’t just be one big coincidence. “How close were you?” The question was odd, but he knew Yuto and Ruri were best friends, and Yugo obviously cared about Rin. He really wanted to know how if Yuri and Serena were the same.

                “Close? Not very. We shared classes, and sometimes we’d get paired together for duels, but we kept to ourselves most of the time.” He answered, confusing Yuya even more. If he wasn’t close to Serena, then what was with everyone else getting close to their Yuzu?

                “Hmm… since that XYZ version of us is in you, was he familiar with… ” Yuri paused for a moment, trying to remember her name. “Ruri?”

                “Yeah, they were pretty close.” Yuya answered. A flash of the girl’s smiling face ran through his mind for a moment, and he felt a pang of sympathy of Yuto as the he felt the loss coming in through their bond.

                “That’s… a strange connection that we all know these girls.”

                “I mean, it sounds just as strange as us all looking like each other to me.” Yugo shrugged. “This dimensional bullshit doesn’t make much sense to me.” He laid back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. “Who knows?”

                By now, the three boys were used to the door at the front of their cell slamming open, but it still made them all come to attention, and Yuya subconsciously touched his neck.

                “You and you,” A large Obelisk pointed to Yugo and Yuya. “Come on.” Not a man of very many words. The two boys followed without protest and quickly walked out of the cell, each having their mind race at what the Professor was going to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry for updating so late! I'm terribly off schedule for writing this... Here's chapter 9. Leave your comments and concerns below.


	10. The End

In short, I'm sorry. I've been reading through the comments on my story and I feel really awful for doing this... but I will have to put it on the dreaded HIATUS.

I know its been on an unofficial hiatus for a while, and I'm very sorry for doing this. I didn't have the inspiration for this story over the end of the summer, and I don't have time for it now. So one of three things will happen here:

I will abandon this story (and possibly delete it unless asked not to)

I find an editor and continue this story with odd updates when I can write it

I don't find an editor and I reboot the story entirely so I can start from scratch with no updates until well into break next year

This story is diverging from canon far more heavily than when I first wrote it, so I may very well wait until the end of September to make a decision on the future. I apologize to every single person who left a Kudos or comment, or even just read the story and enjoyed it. Until further notice, this story is on hiatus.

**Author's Note:**

> Well... if you made it here, then congrats! PLEASE, PLEASE leave a comment. I am looking for attention, yes, but also criticism. Was there an interaction that was too awkward, was there a scene that was just way too out of character for you to believe? All thoughts are note just welcome, but begged for. You would be doing me a huge favor by posting your thoughts.


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